Knight.
“Gosh, these fellows must have been enchanted along with the Corabians,” decided Speedy, helping Marygolden to a place on an view of the champions, “and this test must have been planned the very day the Sultan’s magic took effect.”
“It was,” snickered Confido, lifting his head curiously, “and what’s more, the Princess is still enchanted and cannot be released until one of these Knights has passed the test and won the right to her hand. Ho, ho! Wait till they hear what the test is. They’ll dash off in a hurry, even the brave Hokus, who pretends not to know us any more!”
“I’ll wager he won’t,” asserted Marygolden stoutly. “I’ll wager he will win this Princess. Dear, dear, how happy she will be to marry a Prince so tall and handsome,”
“Sh-hh!” warned Speedy, touching her arm warningly. “The King is going to speak.”
CHAPTER 19
For the Hand of a Princess
“KNIGHTS and Princes!” The voice of the Corabian King sounded a trifle hoarse, due, no doubt, to his five hundred year immersion in the yellow river. “This grand test of courage for the hand of my only daughter, which has already been delayed five centuries by the meddling magic of our wicked neighbor, must be delayed still longer until the Princess herself has been disenchanted and restored to us. Has anyone present seen the Princess?” The King and assembled subjects, and Speedy, not wishing them to worry a moment longer than was necessary, stepped forward to explain.
“The Princess can only be released from the Sultan’s spell by the winner of the contest,” announced the King, after an earnest consultation with Speedy. “Kings! Knights! Princes! The fate of my only daughter is in your hands.”
“Let the contest proceed!” roared the crowd, and the five contestants immediately galloped
forward.
“State your conditions,” puffed a Knight in green, holding his great white charger in check with
difficulty.
“Oh! Oh! I hope our Knight wins,” breathed Marygolden, clasping the Comfortable Camel round the neck, and placing Confido high on the Camel’s hump, so he could see.
“Our Knight!” grumbled the Camel disdainfully. “Our Knight no longer!” But secretly and with great satisfaction he noted that the Yellow Knight was the handsomest of all the suitors.
“Atta boy, Hokus!” shouted Speedy, as Stampedro galloped smartly to the fore. Then a deep silence fell on the company as the King rose to announce the conditions of the grand contest, and when he finished a little shiver ran through the crowd.
“Beneath these three rings,” the King told them, solemnly pointing to three brass rings in the silver flagstones at his feet, “there are three secret passageways. One opens into a bottomless pit filled with poisonous vapor, one into the cave of a seven-headed hydra, and one leads straight to the tower room of the Princess herself. Let each Knight choose his ring, and may the bravest among you win my daughter’s hand!”
“But what of the others?” objected the Knight in green. “An honest battle I do not mind, but bottomless pits and seven-headed hydras! Nay, not for the fairest damsel that lives!” Touching spurs to his horse, he thundered away, leaving everyone choking in the dust he had raised.
“Poisonous vapor!” puffed a lordly fellow in red. “What chance has a brave man against such trickery? Adieu, I withdraw!” And withdraw he did, followed by a black Knight and a gray, who, without stopping to explain their reasons, cantered off so violently that they upset three guards and a stand of posies.
“Curses!” muttered Speedy, staring anxiously at the Yellow Knight, who all alone stood staring down at the fatal rings. “Suppose he rides off, too?” But the Yellow Knight had no such intention, and with a shout that reminded the boy of his old friend, Sir Hokus, he sprang lightly from his horse.
“The monster I will slay, and gladly, with the poisonous vapor I must take my chance, but this Princess must be saved at any cost, at any hazard, and come what may!”
“Hola! Bravo!” screamed the company, beside itself with delight. “Three cheers for the Yellow Knight of Oz.” Marygolden, excited as any, tore off the rose Peter Pun had fastened to her shoulder that morning, and flung it impulsively down to him. The rose fell directly over the center ring and the Knight, looking up in surprise, caught Marygolden smiling at him.
“Good,” he mused, thrusting the rose into his glove. “This little maiden whom I seem to know well, shall decide for me.” And without pause or parley, he leaned forward and pulled up the center ring. There was a groan and creak as the trapdoor lifted, and the Corabians in the front ranks backed away as far as they could. But only a flight of silver steps led down from the opening, and as the Knight prepared to descend, the King lifted his scepter.
“My son!” cried the King joyfully. “You have indeed chosen well, for this passageway leads straight to the tower of the Princess. But before you go to break the spell that cruelly keeps her from our presence, I beg that you will lift these other rings.” Much mystified, the Corabians began to mutter that such a request was not fair nor necessary. But the Yellow Knight, after a keen look at his Majesty, lifted first one and then the other, A great roar of surprise and then mirth went up, for there was nothing under either ring but grass.
“Odds muttons and buttons!” puffed the Yellow Knight, staring down in astonishment. “Was there, then, no monster or poisonous vapor at all?”
“None,” smiled the King calmly. “But the man to whom I would trust my daughter had to be brave enough to take a chance-to risk anything for her sake. That you have done. Those craven cowards who rode away might have done it also. And now go quickly and claim your reward. ” Stepping down from his throne, the King gave the Knight the last date that Speedy had plucked from the magic palm. “Eat this date,” he directed earnestly, “place the seed upon the ledge of the tower balcony, and instantly the Princess will be restored to herself, to us, and to you, her future husband. Is that not right, Confido?” The little dog nodded superciliously, and with a little sigh of expectancy the crowd watched the Yellow Knight vanish down the steps of the secret passageway.
“Well,” said Speedy, squinting up at the balcony and feeling much as one does when the curtain is about to descend in the theater for the last time, “this clears up the last mystery, and after we see this Princess we might as well go home. Look, there’s the Yellow Knight on the balcony now! He’s eaten the date. Now I wonder whether the Princess will be pretty. I’ll bet she’s not as pretty as you arc, Marygolden. Hey, say! Where did she go? Camy! Camy! Where’s Marygolden?” But the Comfortable Camel was staring upward so intently that he did not even hear Speedy’s question.
“Rice! Soup and cobblestone pie!” gulped Camy, stretching up his neck to its fullest extent. “Do you see what I see?” Still looking anxiously around for Marygolden, Speedy glanced quickly aloft and then gave a startled scream.
“Why, it’s Marygolden! How did she get up there? Curses Mickapplejuice! How can Marygolden be the Princess of Corabia? I found her my own self. She’s my Princess and is coming back to America with me!”
“Guess again!” grunted the Camel dryly. As Speedy took another incredulous look,
Marygolden put both arms round the Knight’s neck and embraced him tenderly. Not since the Skyrocket flew off without Uncle Billy had Speedy felt so lost, strange, and forgotten.
“Gosh! Golly!” gulped the boy, winking fast to keep back the tears. “Gosh! Golly! Camy, we’re the only ones left. I don’t suppose Marygolden will remember us any more than Hokus did. Come on, let’s get out of here.” But so great was the crush that they could not move a step. All around them the Corabians were stamping and shouting with joy, and presently Marygolden and the Yellow Knight came down to greet the cheering throng. And now, to make matters worse, who should arrive but the King and Queen of Corumbia and Peter Pun in a white chariot drawn by twenty white horses. And then what a rejoicing and embracing between the two kingly couples, so long separated by the Sultan’s
enchantments! Marygolden, in her gold court dress and train, looked so tall and stately that Speedy could not believe she was the same girl who had gone through so many strange adventures with him. The Princess, after heartily embracing her parents and the parents of the Yellow Knight, began to look searchingly over the heads of the courtiers, and not seeing Speedy, who had stepped behind a silver pillar, spoke quickly to a page at her side. Blowing a shrill blast on his silver trumpet the page called loudly.
“Will the liberator of the Columbians and the Corabians, the discoverer of Princess Marygolden, and the gentlest and bravest youth in twenty kingdoms be pleased to step forward? Speedy, the American, and the Comfortable Camel of Oz kindly step this way. Way for Speedy and the Comfortable Camel of Oz!” Speedy, turning red as a turkeycock, backed in embarrassment, but the crowd, quickly recognizing the boy who had given the magic dates to the King, boisterously pushed him forward, Camy treading in a dignified manner behind him. Then, to his surprise and delight, both the Princess and the Yellow Knight hurried forward to clasp his hands.
“Speedy!” cried the Knight, his eyes lighting up with the same kindly twinkle that had characterized Sir Hokus. “And Camy! Good old Camy! That enchantment acted upon me like a fever. Forgive me, if in the excitement of the present, I for a moment forgot the friends and allegiances of the past. Odds bodikens! I was bewitched, or I would have known Marygolden long ago.
“Soon as I kissed him he remembered everything,” smiled the princes, lifting Confido to a place on her shoulder. “Ah, Speedy, is it not wonderful? I, too, remember everything now. This is my real home and happiness, but I’ll never forget the adventures we had together, nor the grand care you took of me when I scarce knew anything at all.”
“Do you mind so very much if I take care of her now?” begged Sir Hokus in an anxious undertone. “You wouldn’t want to marry for years, and a Princess might not be happy in America.
“I suppose not,” sighed Speedy, staring up at the bewildering vision of loveliness that was Marygolden. “But I sorta wanted to show her my dog, and Uncle Billy’s laboratory, and-and-” All at once Speedy was dreadfully homesick for a sight of Uncle Billy himself, for the pungent tang of Uncle Billy’s pipe, and the queer smelling chemicals in the inventor’s workshop. For the first time he felt out of place amid all this pomp and splendor. “I guess I’ll be going along,” sighed Speedy, with a last, long, regretful look at the Princess.
“And I suppose, now that you have Stampedro, you’ll not be needing me,” choked the Comfortable Camel, bobbing his head sadly at the splendid figure of the Knight. “Good-good-bye! I’m going to take Speedy to the Emerald City and ask Ozma to send him home to America, and then-and then-” Camy tried hard to control himself but finally broke down and wept bitterly.
“Then you’re coming straight back to Corumbia. Camy, Camy, you old son of a sandwich, d’ye think I could get along without you? Why, I’ll need dozens of mounts! And besides, aren’t you my
best friend? And Speedy, my boy, surely you’ll stay for the wedding?”
“And the reward!” puffed the King of Corabia, thumping Speedy heartily on the back. “Half my kingdom if you will stay with us!”
“And mine!” asserted the King of Corumbia, while Peter Pun begged Speedy to stay and share his tower.
“Oh, I couldn’t stay always!” explained the boy quickly. “But I’d like to stay for the wedding! Shall we, Camy?” The Camel, who was crying comfortably down the Knight’s back, nodded without speaking, and as Sir Hokus insisted that the marriage take place at once they all turned toward the castle.
But before they had gone a step there came a sudden and blinding flash of lightning. It played over the whole company, but settled like a spotlight upon the Yellow Knight and the Comfortable Camel
of Oz.
“Mmm-magic!” stuttered Peter Pun, jumping behind the King of Corumbia. “Sss-somebody’s making light of us.”
“The Sultan!” burst out Speedy, rushing to the Knight’s side. “What’ll we do?” But before Sir Hokus (and somehow I cannot call this Yellow Knight anything but that) before Sir Hokus could draw his sword, the flash of light faded again, there came a second flash; two flying figures sailed over the heads of the crowd and dropped lightly before Marygolden and the Yellow Knight.
“Why, it’s Ozma!” quavered the Comfortable Camel, lifting his head from the Knight’s
shoulder.
“Whose ma?” queried Peter Pun, coming out from behind the King. “Why, she’s a mere child and no ma at all.”
“She’s the ma of this whole country, just the same,” asserted Camy, shaking his head proudly. “Three cheers for Ozma of Oz and Princess Dorothy, her best friend and advisor!” The Corabians, although hoarse from cheering already, gladly gave three more. And concealing perfectly their consternation and surprise at the strange manner and suddenness of her arrival, the rulers of Corumbia and Corabia, with bows, murmurs, and many graceful genuflections, greeted the Supreme Sovereign of their whole magic and mysterious country.
CHAPTER 20
The Marriage of Marygolden
THE WIZARD OF OZ, as you have probably surmised, had finally perfected his searchlight. First it had discovered the magic picture stuck behind some books in Ozma’s library. Sir Hokus himself had hidden the picture before he started on his quest, for he knew if it was in its place he would soon be found and followed. Then the searchlight, shot from the top of the castle tower, had flashed back with the
whereabouts of the Comfortable Camel and Sir Hokus. No sooner had Ozma discovered that they were in Corabia than she clasped on her magic belt and transported herself and Dorothy to that Kingdom.
“Here’s Camy!” gasped Dorothy, somewhat breathlessly returning the bows of Their Majesties. “But I don’t see Sir Hokus. Well, anyway, the searchlight has found Camy.”
“Found us both,” corrected the Camel grandly. “There stands Sir Hokus of Pokes, really the Yellow Knight and Prince of Corumbia, with his bride, the Princess of Corabia. These, Your Highness,” Camy jerked his head respectfully in the direction of the Kings and Queens, “are the Sovereigns of Corumbia and Corabia and this boy, this excellent, courageous and adventurous American boy, is called Speedy, and in him you see the restorer of two kingdoms and a Prince, and the discoverer of a Princess!”
“How about me?” coughed Confido sharply. “I guess I’m as important as he is!”
“The Imperial Peke of Samandra, now official pet of Princess Marygolden,” added Camy, with a broad wink at Peter Pun. Ozma smiled and nodded at each introduction but was so stunned and dazzled by the change in Sir Hokus of Pokes that she could for several moments find no words to express her astonishment.
“Is it really you?” she begged finally, standing on tiptoe to put her hands on the Knight’s shoulder. “Yes, I can tell by the eyes. The eyes are the same. But wherever have you been and why did you go off without us? We have been so anxious and worried.”
Sir Hokus blushed and looked uncomfortable. “Because a Knight must go questing alone!” explained Camy, coming valiantly to the rescue. “And has it not been worth some worry, to have everything turn out so happily? Wait, just wait till you have heard our story!”
“Why wait?” cried the King of Corabia, who was consumed with curiosity to discover how Speedy had come to have the magic dates. “Why wait? Let us hear everything now.
“A story! A story! Enchantments and glory! Ye Knights and ye Ladies, give ear Attend and turn pale, as ye list to the tale Of Sir Hokus and Speedy. Hear! Hear!”
roared Peter Pun, shaking his belled stick hilariously. Ozma and Dorothy were only too anxious to hear, and when silver chairs had been brought for them by the footmen, the Yellow Knight and Speedy told the story of their exciting experiences from beginning to end. Ozma, like Speedy, could not help feeling a little sad to lose Sir Hokus. The Good Knight of Oz would be sadly missed at the castle. But she knew it would be selfish to wish for her old friend instead of this young
and shining Knight, so happy in his release and future. As she sat musing over the whole strange story, Dorothy jumped up and impulsively kissed both the Knight and his bride.
“I understand everything,” cried Dorothy, flinging out her arms, “everything except how Sir Hokus got to Pokes and Marygolden to Subterranea. How do you suppose they did, Ozma?”
“That,” said Ozma, her lovely face suddenly growing grave, we shall soon discover!” And touching her magic belt she spoke seven words under her breath. Speedy, who had dropped on a cushion beside Peter Pun, bounded up with a cry of alarm. The Yellow Knight jerked out his sword, and little gasps of dismay and curiosity burst from the lips of the onlookers. There, before Queen Ozma, stood the Sultan of Samandra, brought by the magic belt to answer for his crimes. At the moment of his summons, the fat and furious monarch had been riding at the head of his camel corps to attack the King of Corumbia. In his hand he still brandished a large, gleaming scimitar, and his face, distorted with rage, astonishment, and disappointment, was not pleasant to gaze upon.
“Drop that weapon,” commanded Ozma sternly, and after one quick glance the Sultan recognizing the Ruler of all Oz, sulkily did as
he was told. “Now,” continued Ozma severely, “will you kindly explain why you stole the treasures of your two good neighbors and enchanted and transformed them and their children for five hundred years?”
“If the children of these two monarchs married, as they fully intended to do, the two Kings would have combined to crush me,” whined the Sultan, shifting from one foot to the other.
“Nonsense!” blustered the King of Corumbia. “You know I had always the kindliest feelings toward you, nor ever suspected such base treachery at your hands.”
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