[Illustration: 9138]
HE greatest consternation followed this announcement, and the Lord High
Adjudicator in particular looked greatly alarmed.
“Wh--wh--what do you want?” he stammered nervously.
“I think I have the pleasure of addressing His Importance the Lord High
Adjudicator, have I not?” replied Ohah. “I scarcely recognised you in
that--ahem--that costume,” he added, smiling sarcastically.
“Oh, I wear it for the sake of coolness,” said the Lord High
Adjudicator, hastily his bib, which was somewhat disordered, been having
very warm weather lately.
“Oh! really!” said Ohah. “And I suppose you play leapfrog and blind
man’s buff for the sake of coolness too, eh? I should have thought that
at your time of life you had given up such frivolities.”
“It was His Majesty’s fault,” said the Lord High Adjudicator sheepishly;
“he _would_ have a parliament of children, and so we were obliged to
dress like this and play games, or we should have lost our positions.”
“H’m! doesn’t it strike you as being rather foolish to have a King so
young as your present one?” inquired Ohah.
“Well, it certainly has its disadvantages,” admitted the Lord High
Adjudicator; “but what are we to do? He is the lawful successor to the
throne, you know.”
“Well, I could soon help you out of that difficulty if you wished,” said
the Magician, a cunning look creeping over his face.
“What do you mean?” asked the Lord High Adjudicator.
“I could make him invisible, you know, like the Prince and Princess, and
then you could govern the country yourselves,” suggested Ohah.
“Oh, but that wouldn’t be right, surely,” said the Lord High
Adjudicator.
“Oh, I don’t know,” chimed in the Busybody Extraordinary; “we sha’n’t
be able to manage very well with a King like this, and if there was
no legal successor to the throne we could have a general election, you
know, and choose a King for ourselves.”
“Does it hurt much to be made invisible?” asked the Lord High
Adjudicator thoughtfully.
“Not a bit,” exclaimed Ohah; “it’s rather a pleasant sensation than
otherwise.”
“And how long would he have to remain in that state?” inquired the Lord
High Adjudicator.
“Oh! till the Portmanteau is found,” was the reply.
“The Portmanteau!” exclaimed the Lord High Adjudicator; “why, that will
never be found, you know; we had every house in Zum searched for it
years ago.”
“It must be here somewhere, and when it is found I am instructed by the
King of Limesia to make your Crown Prince and his bride visible again;
but in the meantime you had better let me make the little King invisible
too, for you can’t possibly go on as you are.”
“What do you think about it?” asked the Lord High Adjudicator of the
others.
“Well, I don’t think it’s at all a bad plan, do you know,” replied the
Advertiser General. “I can see that we shall have rather a hard time of
it if His present Majesty continues to reign; and if it wouldn’t hurt
him at all--”
“Not in the least,” interrupted Ohah.
“I don’t see why we shouldn’t agree to it.”
“That’s right! and now, when shall I perform the operation?” said Ohah
in a business-like way.
“Oh, the sooner the quicker,” replied the Advertiser General. “What do
you say to to-morrow morning?”
“Yes, that will suit me nicely,” was the answer; and so it was arranged
that the poor little King should be rendered invisible the next day; but
Boy, who had been listening eagerly to all that had been going on, made
up his mind that he would do what he could to prevent it, so calling
One-and-Nine, he hurried to the Palace, and sent a message to the Royal
Nurse to say that he must have an interview with her immediately.
Mrs. Martha Matilda Nimpky received him in her own apartments, and
listened intently to all that he had to say.
“The wretches!” she exclaimed. “And that old villain Ohah! Of course he
has been sent by that horrible King of Limesia; who directly he has got
rid of this poor little fellow will come here and seize the throne for
himself: I can see through his little tricks and manners.”
“But what’s to be done?” cried Boy excitedly. “We must do something
to prevent it. I know,” he exclaimed after thinking for a moment,
“Professor Crab, of course. You could go and stay at his house with His
Majesty till we could find another place for him. Ohah wouldn’t think of
looking there, I am sure.”
“Where is Professor Crab’s?” inquired the Royal Nurse. “Drinkon
College,” replied Boy. “You go by the Submarine Navigation Company’s
Steamers, you know, and I will get One-and-Nine to escort you to the
College, while I stop here and see what goes on in your absence.”
“Do you mean that Soldier friend of yours?” inquired Mrs. Martha Matilda
Nimpky, blushing bashfully. “He seems to be a very nice gentleman.”
“Yes, he is,” replied Boy, “and he will be delighted, I am sure, to act
as your escort, for he admires you very much indeed.”
“Does he really?” said Mrs. Martha Matilda Nimpky, giggling and shaking
her curls coquettishly. “How nice!”
“I don’t think there’s any time to lose,” said Boy; “you go and prepare
His Majesty, and I will go with you to the Station.”
A very few moments later they all met in the garden, and after Boy had
formally introduced One-and-Nine to Mrs. Martha Matilda Nimpky, they
left the Palace grounds by a small private gate, and after one or two
inquiries found themselves at the Quay. Fortunately there was a boat
starting soon, and so they were off, and Boy was back again to the
Palace before any one had missed them. He had barely, however, reached
his apartments in the Palace when Caesar Maximilian Augustus Claudius
Smith (called Thomas for short) brought him a card on which Boy read:
[Illustration: 0143]
“Dear me, I wonder what he wants to see me for?” he thought as he waited
for the Magician to enter.
“I thought you’d like to see some tricks,” said this gentleman as he
came in, “and it will be good practice for me for my important work
to-morrow. Now is there anything that you’d like to be turned into?”
“Oh no, thank you,” cried Boy, greatly alarmed, “I’m quite content to be
myself.”
“H’m! you are an exception to the general rule then. However, you _must_
be changed to something or other, for I want to have some practice. What
do you say to being a hen?” and the Magician stretched out his hands and
made a few mysterious passes, muttering some strange words the while.
Boy was just going to cry, “Oh! please no,” when he found to his great
dismay that he could not speak, and the only noise which he could make
sounded like “tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk ka-r-a-a-ka, tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk ka-ra-a-ka,”
and when he looked down at his feet he found claws there instead, and
feathers on his body; in fact, he was completely transformed. He tried
to scream, but “tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-ka-r-a-a-ka” was the result and Ohah
was holding his sides with laughter while Boy ran and flew frantically
about the room, making this strange noise and clumsily knocking his beak
against the furniture on all sides, till presently he managed to get
under a chair at the further end of the room and miserably wondered what
would happen next.
[Illustration: 0145]
Caesar Maximilian Augustus Claudius Smith (called Thomas for short)
hearing the noise rushed into the room, and made matters worse by trying
to drive the poor bewildered hen out.
“Shoo-shoo,” he cried, kicking under the chair, and Boy
flew out again and ran round and round the room calling out
“tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-ka-ra-a-ka,” “tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk ka-ra-a-a-ka” as loudly
as he could till presently Ohah (who had been laughing the whole time)
made some further passes with his hand and muttered some more words,
and Caesar Maximilian Augustus Claudius Smith (called Thomas for short)
changed at once into a little dog.
“Bow-wow-wow, yap-yap,” he barked, rushing at Boy; and then the old
chase began all over again, till at last by a great effort Boy flew up
on to the bookcase out of his reach. He felt very hot and tired, and
forgetting that he was a hen, began fumbling about for his handkerchief,
and in doing so nearly lost his balance and fell off his uncomfortable
perch. He felt greatly relieved when Ohah transformed Cæsar Maximilian
Augustus Claudius Smith (called Thomas for short) back to himself again,
and as soon as he had done so Boy flew down on to the floor; and it was
as well that he did, for with a wave of his wand (which he carried
up his sleeve) the Magician just then turned the bookcase into a big
humming-top and afterwards into a pair of steps, and then, apparently
satisfied that his powers as a Magician were in good working order, he
suddenly restored Boy and the bookcase to their original forms again.
“Oh,” cried Boy with a sigh of relief when he found that he was himself
once more, “that’s very interesting, sir, but please don’t do it again.”
“Why not?” laughed Ohah. “It’s as simple as A.B.C.; there is no danger.”
“Can you change yourself into things too?” inquired Boy.
“Yes!” said Ohah. “Would you like to see me? What shall I be?”
“Oh, something small, please. I should be terribly frightened if you
were to turn into a lion or bear, you see.”
“All right,” said Ohah, “I’ll be a Kottle.”
“What’s that?” cried Boy.
“Oh, a thing all _gribbins_ and _bones_,” explained Ohah. “Now watch,”
and he waved his wand about his head two or three times, and then
disappeared.
Boy watched intently, for he wanted very much to find out what a Kottle
was; nothing appeared, though, except one or two oddly-shaped scraps
of paper, which Boy picked up and tried to fit together, for there was
something written on the back of them; at last he was able to make out
the following words:--“_I have forgotten how to change myself back from
a Kottle again. Goodbye for ever, Ohah._”
[Illustration: 0149]
“There!” exclaimed Boy. “Well, I must say I’m not very sorry, for he
must have been a most dangerous person to have about. I _should_ have
liked to have found out what a Kottle was, though.”
But he never did, and I may mention here that at Zum to this day they
have a habit of saying about anything that they don’t understand, “Oh,
it must be a Kottle.”
When Boy found that there was no chance of Ohah reappearing, he wondered
if he ought to send for the young King and the Royal Nurse to come back
again, but finally decided that in the present unsettled state of public
opinion it would be safer to wait a little while and see what happened;
because if the Lord High Adjudicator and the other Statesmen were
treacherous enough to hand the little King over to the tender mercies of
Ohah, Boy felt that he was not at all safe in their hands.
Shortly after this it was discovered that the King and the Royal Nurse
were missing, and the Lord High Adjudicator and the others flocked to
the Palace to find out if it were true.
Caesar Maximilian Augustus Claudius Smith (called Thomas for short)
explained what had happened to himself; and it was at once decided that
Ohah must have made the little King invisible rather sooner than he had
intended, and they all went back to the House of Words to talk over the
situation.
“Of course we must have a general election at once,” said the Lord High
Adjudicator when they had all settled down into their places, “to decide
who is to be made King.”
“I am still willing to accept the post, if you like,” suggested the
Kitchen Poker in Waiting disinterestedly.
“It will save the trouble of an election, you know; and I don’t wish to
boast, but I am quite sure that you could not possibly select anybody
nearly so suitable for the position as myself. Handsome, accomplished
and modest to a degree, I----”
“Here, here, that’s quite enough of that,” interrupted the Advertiser
General. “We have decided to elect a King by vote, and there’s an end of
the matter. I will go and have some posters printed and stuck about all
over the town, and we’ll soon have this matter put right. I shouldn’t be
at all surprised if I were elected myself. I’m a very popular man, you
know.”
“H’m!” sneered the Lord High Adjudicator, “I don’t think you will stand
much chance if I put up for the post, as I certainly intend to do.”
“Well, don’t let’s waste time wrangling,” suggested the Busybody
Extraordinary; “let’s decide when the election is to take place.”
“Oh, to-morrow, of course,” was the cry; “the sooner the better.”
So a notice was drawn up as follows, and the Advertiser General was
instructed to have it printed and posted on all the walls some time that
night, however late it might be.
NOTICE!
|Wereas His Majesty, King Robert the Twenty-first, has mysteriously
disappeared and there is no successor to the throne, an
```ELECTION
````OF A
```SUITABLE KING
will take place to-morrow at the House of Words. Each person to have one
vote. Polling papers can be had of the Town Clerk and must be filled
up and returned by two o’clock in the afternoon, when the Poll will be
closed.
``By Order,
```JOSHUA DOBBS,
````Lord High Adjudicator.
And as soon as this business was concluded the meeting broke up, and
every one hurried away to try and secure votes for himself.
The news spread like wild fire, and as he went back to the Palace, Boy
could see excited groups of people, and even animals, discussing the
matter, and on opening his window when he reached his apartments he
disturbed a large black cat who had just finished writing a placard on
which Boy could discern the words:--
VOTE
FOR
MR. THOMAS CAT,
A SICK WIFE AND SEVEN SMALL KITTENS.
[Illustration: 0153]
Boy shut the window and went to bed.