by Speedy In Oz
“How dare you chase me on my own island?” hissed the Watch Cat, arching her back wrathfully. “I’ve a notion to scratch out your eyes, you great clumsy, unmannerly piece of wreckage. The King will hear of this. He’ll have you pulled apart and thrown into the soup. He’ll have you boiled in oil.”
“Now that might be very good for me,” observed Terrybubble gravely. “Oil is so lubricating and good
for the joints. What do you think, Princess?”
“Think! I think you’re terrible,” choked Gureeda, lifting the quivering Watch Cat from Speedy’s shoulder and beginning to smooth down her fur. “Don’t you ever dare touch Pansy again!”
“Oh, once will be quite enough.” Waving his claws wearily, Terrybubble looked questioningly at Speedy, and Speedy, thankful that the affair had not proved more serious, nodded, resolving to have a long talk with Terrybubble at the first opportunity. Now Gureeda for a girl had a surprisingly active funny bone, and Pansy with her fur straight on end and her eyes snapping like live coals looked so comical, and Terrybubble in his huge daisy wreath so queer and unnatural, and Speedy so annoyed and worried, the Whole affair began to strike her as highly ridiculous.
“Terrybubble didn’t mean to hurt you,” sputtered the Princess as well as she could between her little bursts of laughter. “He was just seeing if you could run as fast as he runs.”
“I don’t care what he was seeing,” screamed Pansy vindictively. “I’d like to hurt him terribly-terribly.”
“Well, I am sorry you cannot do that,” answered Terrybubble regretfully. “I wouldn’t mind your hurting me a little, but you see, the way things are, I
could not even feel your claws or scratches. But if it’s any satisfaction to you, I don’t mind saying that you are hurting my feelings terribly-the way you are acting and talking. I-why, I feel it in all of my bones,” murmured the monster, resting his jaw unhappily on the branch of a magnolia tree and looking off sadly into the distance. “And such a clever little racer as you are, too. Imagine a tiny fur ball your size almost outdistancing a monster of mine!”
“I do run pretty fast,” acknowledged Pansy, letting down her back a trifle. “But why didn’t you tell me it was a race?”
“How could I when you wouldn’t stop?” argued Terrybubble reasonably, and the two children, seeing peace was about to be declared, exchanged a smile.
“Let’s go back to the castle,” proposed Speedy, picking up his umbrella and handing Gureeda her parasol which had slipped to the ground when she picked up the Watch Cat. He was anxious to see how Waddy was progressing with Terrybubble’s parashoot and there were many things about Umbrella Island he wanted the wizard to explain. The dinosaur politely offered to carry them and as they all were weary from the tiring chase, they thankfully accepted his offer and climbed nimbly up into his high and bony chest.
Even Pansy seemed to enjoy her ride in this curious conveyance and kept up a spirited and friendly conversation with Terrybubble all the way back to the palace. But as they came to the royal terrace the Watch Cat scurried hastily down the vine. Pansy had a private and personal attendant to brush her coat and braid her tail and ears and the King’s pampered pet had no intention of letting anyone see her in her present ruffled and dirty condition.
Terrybubble himself, when they reached the castle, expressed an earnest desire to remain quietly in the throne room and the kindly little Princess, after showing Speedy the way to Waddy’s tower, retired to her own apartment to finish her natural history book. The castle seemed deserted and still as Speedy, with mingled feelings of interest and trepidation, began to mount the curving stair to the Wizard’s tower.
CHAPTER 10
In the
Wizard’s Tower
WHILE the Princess, Speedy and Terrybubble were off in the Umbrella Grove, Kachewka lost no time in following up his daring
suggestion. Following the King into his dressing room, where the distracted monarch was about to seek a little rest, the wily counselor, after dismissing Pansy and the attendants, began all over again his arguments for substituting Speedy for the King’s daughter.
“The first thing to do is to make this boy’s stay so pleasant that he’ll willingly remain with us until it is time for Loxo to come for the Princess,” said Kachewka, seating himself firmly on the foot of the King’s couch.
“But that is perfectly horrible,” exclaimed Sizzeroo, jerking open his collar and sinking fretfully back among his pillows.
“Not only horrible but downright deceitful as
well.”
“Deceitful or not, it must be done,” insisted Kachewka, “and moreover, no one must have a suspicion of the plan but you and me. Your Majesty is too soft-hearted and must look at things more sensibly. A mortal lives but a brief space-seventy years or so-but we Umbrellians go on for centuries. Is it not better, then, to let a mortal suffer a little discomfort for seventy years than to subject your daughter to slavery for a thousand?”
“Don’t, don’t! I can’t bear it,” groaned the King, burying his head in the pillows. “There must be some
other way. Why, only this morning Waddy said he had a plan.”
“Waddy! Humph! Waddy!” Kachewka snapped his fingers scornfully. “All he can do is pick flaws in the ideas of other people. He’ll never think of anything in time. Now all I ask is that your Majesty keep absolutely quiet about this matter. If anything better turns up, well and good.
If not-” Kachewka arose and began pacing briskly up and down. “Fortunately Loxo is expecting a boy. Well, then, I’ll just outfit this Speedy in the exact style of trousers and blouse worn by the Princess. I might even persuade him to wear a false braid. I’ll give him the blue room, a personal guard and a good horse.”
“You expect him to look at a horse after riding a dinosaur?” inquired the King, leaning on his elbow and regarding his adviser with gloomy disfavor.
“That’s the only draw-back,” sighed Kachewka, jerking his beard irritably. “To think we must endure that great jittery ruin-have him sitting in our throne room for three months like a death head at a feast-a skeleton in the closet, only there’s no closet big enough to hide him. He’s positively outlandish and preposterous.”
“Maybe he feels the same way about us,” suggested
Sizzeroo slyly. “I thought him a quite mannerly monster, myself.”
“Well, we’ll have to stand him as long as the boy stops here, but when the time comes-” Kachewka sneezed and gave a quick forward shove with both hands-“We’ll just have the parashooters shove him off the island.”
“You have such nice ideas,” coughed the King, thumping his pillows vigorously. “And now, perhaps, as you have settled everything so happily, you will go away and let me have a little peace.” Sizzeroo closed his eyes and pursed up his lips determinedly and after several unsuccessful attempts to draw him into a conversation, Kachewka sneezed himself out of the royal presence. Quite convinced the King would be forced to accept his plan for saving the Princess, the scheming old statesman spent the rest of the afternoon making elaborate arrangements for his unsuspecting victim’s comfort and entertainment. Speedy, however, was already enjoying himself to the fullest extent. After climbing four hundred silver steps, he had come at last to the Wizard’s workshop at the top of the castle tower. In answer to his timid knock, Waddy himself had opened the door.
“Come in! Come in!” he beamed hospitably.
“I’m just putting the finishing touches to our dino-shoot.”
Stepping carefully around a mass of wires, rods and a big bolt of transparent silver fabric, Speedy hurried over to the center of the great circular room. It Was more like an
observatory than a work shop, for its walls were entirely of glass, and every other window was fitted with an enormous rotating telescope. The windows on one side of this singularly pleasant laboratory were carefully curtained and here in orderly rows upon the shelves stood all the books, bottles, tubes, lamps, jars and other curious vessels a w
izard needs to carry out his magic experiments.
Waddy was bending over a long table in the screened portion of his shop - the longest table Speedy ever had seen in his whole life.
On this table lay the framework of a simply enormous umbrella, but as you can easily imagine, it would take a tremendous table to hold an umbrella large enough to cover a prehistoric monster like Terrybubble. Without speaking, for Speedy had had experience with scientists and knew they did not like to be disturbed, the little boy climbed on the bench beside the table and looked on with deep interest as the Wizard fitted a huge handle on the almost completed frame.
“Had to have a bone handle for Terrybubble,” puffed Waddy with a large wink. “What’s a fossil
umbrella without a bone handle? And this one will do very well-v-e-r-y well.” Speedy thought it would too, although where Waddy had ever found a bone large enough, he could not figure out at all. But here it was, smooth and shiny as ivory, with a splendid hooked end trimmed with silver.
As Speedy continued to sit quietly on the bench, Waddy left the table, cut a length of silver fabric, expertly tore it into sections and began fitting them on the massive frame. For this he used neither a needle, pinchers or glue, but a fiat metal instrument that spread the material smoothly, finished off the rough edges and fastened it to the ribs all in one operation.
“Hop on that tall stool and have a look at the scenery,” suggested Waddy cleverly, for he did not like anyone to watch too closely when he was using his magic tools. “We’re circling over Oz now, and you may see some of its famous lakes or castles.”
Now Speedy had been longing to do this very thing, so placing his own umbrella on the wizard’s bench, he mounted the high stool set before the nearest telescope and took a long rapturous look downward. Like a gay and brightly colored map, the great oblong Kingdom of Oz spread out far below him. Even the colors of the four celebrated countries were easily distinguishable and to Speedy’s delight, they
were passing over the Yellow Land of the Winkies, where he had had so many thrilling adventures with Marygolden and the Yellow Knight.
South of the Winkie Empire he could see the red triangle that made up the Quadling Country, with its sandy red mountains and castles and its forests of beech and red wood.
An oval of sparkling green in the center marked the capital and, flashing in the afternoon sunlight, high as they were and slanted to the east, Speedy could still make out the twinkling spires and turrets of the Emerald City of Oz. Above the green oval Shimmered the purple Land of the Gillikens and west of the Emerald City the bright blue triangle of the Munchkin realm contrasted sharply with the gay colors of its neighbors. Surrounding Oz like a broad yellow ribbon was the Deadly Desert of shifting sands and beyond the desert, Ev, and the unexplored territories of the East.
As Speedy, in his anxiety to see more and more, pressed his eye closer and closer to the Wizard’s telescope, Umbrella Island swung out over the desert, across the Gnome King’s dominions and headed for the Nonestic Ocean.
“A little sea air will be good for us,” murmured
Waddy, who had left his work long enough to touch a button in the electric steering board on a mounted stand near his book shelves.
“Can you steer the island with that?” puffed Speedy, leaving the telescope for a moment to have a look at this even more fascinating device.
“By that, by a wheel on the King’s terrace and by a gold button in the umbrella shaft itself,” explained the Wizard, again taking up his metal zipper. “I had set the mechanical steering wheel to circle over Oz, but decided to change the course a little, so we could have a sea breeze with our dinner. Nothing like a sea breeze with your dinner, eh, my lad?”
“But suppose some one downstairs has hold of the wheel?” asked Speedy speculatively. “What then?”
“Well then,” Waddy told him, running the zipper skillfully up and down the umbrella seams, “if the King is running the island, which he sometimes does, the direction he takes is recorded up here and I er —I can sort of check up on the navigation-er that is if I happen to be here at the time.”
“Ever have any wrecks?” The unexpected question made Waddy blink.
“Oh no-no-that is, not exactly,” he mumbled uncomfortably, for he felt the conversation was taking a dangerous turn.
“As a matter of fact,” he finished
with what he considered a real inspiration, “Flying Umbrella Island is so safe and easy, I might even let you have a turn at it?”
“Oh, would you?”
Speedy fairly skated across the floor and clutched the Wizard by the sleeve. “When?”
“Soon as I finish this piece of work.” Waddy grinned expansively, and taking an atomizer from the shelf began spraying the silver umbrella fabric with a solution that smelled like peppermint.
“There are some unusual and interesting facts about island flying that I will explain to you later,” he continued, returning the atomizer to the shelf. “For instance, there is the protective metal curtain that drops from the umbrella edge, at touch of this blue button in the shaft, enclosing the whole island in a transparent but impenetrable wall of armor. Then there are the six mechanical anchors, holding us firmly on the surface of the ocean. These anchors, released by touching the red button in the shaft, plunge downward, embed themselves deeply in the sea bottom and hold us steady in the heaviest gale or storm. But it is much easier to show you all these things than to explain them, so come along my boy. Let us descend and in our descent we may as well try out Terrybubble’s umbrella.”
“You mean we’ll drop down to the ground with that?” Speedy managed to keep his voice calm, but his heart gave a sickening thump and his stomach seemed to turn a complete somersault.
“Of course! Of course! How else shall I know it is safe for Terrybubble?”
In a business-like manner Waddy opened two immense double doors in the glass wall and began tugging and hauling the umbrella toward the opening. “It’s too big to try out up here and the ride down will be a fine experience for you,” he panted enthusiastically.
Speedy took a desperate look down. The courtyard and royal terrace seemed miles below, but realizing that his reputation as the nephew of a famous scientist was more or less at stake, he picked up his own small umbrella and waited in a kind of numb dismay for the signal to start. By this time Waddy had the big umbrella well out over the edge of the tower, then cautioning Speedy to fasten the strap on his own umbrella so there would not be too much buoyancy, the jolly old necromancer stepped confidently out on the narrow ledge.
“When I count three, just make a dive for the handle,” he directed, cramming a bunch of pamphlets into his south pocket. “Now then, all ready? OnePage 106
two - three!” At “three” the two experimenters leaped quickly through the open door, fortunately catching the umbrella handle on their way down. The force of their jump launched the great parashoot, which, as it had been constructed to bear much heavier weight, first soared sixty feet above the castle and the same distance to the right, then quite levelly and calmly began its descent. Speedy had been too thankful to know that he had managed to grab the umbrella handle in his dangerous leap to think of anything else. Now, holding on with both hands, he looked curiously down to see where they were heading. To his horror and dismay he saw neath him nothing but the hungry, heaving, green expanse of the Nonestic Ocean.
CHAPTER 11
Message from Radj the Red
“We blew a little of course,”Murmured the Wizard, noting the Speedy’s alarmed expression. “The island is overr your head there, to the right.”
“But, but how are we going to get back?” panted Speedy, with a shuddering look at the waters
below. “Why, why we’re falling straight into the sea.”
“Not into it,” corrected the Wizard Placidly, “But we’ll probably hang over it for a while until we are picked up I must say this umbrella works splendidly~splendidly.”
Speedy could
not share the Wizard’s enthusiasm, so he did not trust himself to answer. He could just make out two craggy islands far below, with a high sea snarling and foaming against their rocky shores. These islands were possibly three miles apart and sometimes the wind swept them toward one and sometimes toward the other.
“We’ll probably come down between them and be dashed to pieces on the rocks,” concluded poor Speedy, marvelling at the vast calm and unconcern of the Wizard as they swung to and fro and side by side over the lashing sea.
“Don’t worry, we’ll be picked up any moment now. Waddy gave him an encouraging wink.
“But who would pick us up?” shouted Speedy, raising his voice above the roaring water pounding on the rocks, now not too far below. Instead of answering, Waddy jerked his head back and to the left. A dark cloud was curving swiftly down upon them-no, not a cloud, but Umbrella Island, itself.
“Do you think they’ll reach us in time?” called
Speedy, with a desperate swallow.
“That depends on who is at the wheel,” called Waddy, without any change of expression. If it’s the King-” Waddy shrugged his shoulders and rolled up his eyes. “But if it is Kachewka or Ram-boula or the Captain of the Guard we have a real chance. I told you somebody would cruise along soon and if we don’t go any lower, everything will be simply sinoobrious.”
“Well, I hope to huckleberries they see us,” blurted out Speedy, rather provoked at Waddy’s indifference to their danger. “They might come down right on top of us and push us into the sea.”
“Quite possibly,” agreed the Wizard, easing his great weight from one hand to the other. At the moment it seemed not only possible but highly probable. The island had descended so rapidly it was now scarcely twenty feet above their heads, cutting off the sun and threatening to drop down and obliterate them. But as Speedy prepared himself to be blotted out, it swooped sharply to the right and they could distinguish not only the figures, but also the faces of their friends.