All the Blueskins assembled in the servants' hall were amazed to see
the pets of the Princesses trailing after the strange little girl, but Trot took her place next to Button-Bright at the table, and the parrot perched upon her shoulder, while the peacock stood upon one side of her chair, and the lamb upon the other, and the cat and dog lay at her feet and the blue rabbit climbed into her lap and cuddled down there. Some of the Blueskins insisted that the animals and birds must be put out of the room, but Ghip-Ghisizzle said they could remain, as they were the favored pets of the lovely Snubnosed Princesses.
Cap'n Bill was delighted to see his dear little friend again, and so
was Button-Bright, and now that they were reunited--for a time, at
least--they paid little heed to the sour looks and taunting remarks
of the ugly Blueskins and ate heartily of the dinner, which was
really very good.
The meal was no sooner over than Ghip-Ghisizzle was summoned to the
chamber of his Majesty the Boolooroo, but before he went away, he
took Trot and Cap'n Bill and Button-Bright into a small room and
advised them to stay there until he returned so that the servants
and soldiers would not molest them. "My people seem to dislike
strangers," said the Majordomo thoughtfully, "and that surprises me
because you are the first strangers they have ever seen. I think
they imagine you will become favorites of the Boolooroo and of the
Princesses, and that is why they are jealous and hate you."
"They needn't worry 'bout that," replied Trot. "The Snubnoses hate
me worse than the people do."
"I can't imagine a bootblue becoming a royal favorite," grumbled
Button-Bright.
"Or a necktie mixer," added Cap'n Bill.
"You don't mix neckties; you're a nectar mixer," said Ghip-Ghisizzle
correcting the sailor. "I'll not be gone long, for I'm no favorite
of the Boolooroo, either, so please stay quietly in this room until
my return."
The Majordomo found the Boolooroo in a bad temper. He had finished
his dinner, where his six daughters had bitterly denounced Trot all
through the meal and implored their father to invent some new and
terrible punishment for her. Also, his wife, the Queen, had made him
angry by begging for gold to buy ribbons with. Then, when he had
retired to his own private room, he decided to send for the umbrella
he had stolen from Button-Bright and test its magic powers. But the
umbrella, in his hands, proved just as common as any other umbrella
might be. He opened it and closed it, and turned it this way and
that, commanding it to do all sorts of things, but of course the
Magic Umbrella would obey no one but a member of the family that
rightfully owned it. At last the Boolooroo threw it down and stamped
upon it and then kicked it into a corner, where it rolled underneath
a cabinet. Then he sent for Ghip-Ghisizzle.
"Do you know how to work that Magic Umbrella?" he asked the
Majordomo.
"No, your Majesty, I do not," was the reply.
"Well, find out. Make the Whiteskins tell you so that I can use it
for my own amusement."
"I'll do my best, your Majesty," said Ghip-Ghisizzle.
"You'll do more than that, or I'll have you patched!" roared the
angry Boolooroo. "And don't waste any time, either, for as soon as
we find out the secret of the umbrella I'm going to have the three
strangers marched through the Arch of Phinis, and that will be the
end of them."
"You can't do that, your Majesty," said the Majordomo.
"Why can't I?"
"They haven't lived six hundred years yet, and only those who have
lived that length of time are allowed to march through the Arch of
Phinis into the Great Blue Grotto."
The King looked at him with a sneer. "Has anyone ever come out of
that Arch alive?" he asked.
"No," said Ghip-ghisizzle, "but no one has ever gone into the Blue
Grotto until his allotted time was up."
"Well, I'm going to try the experiment," declared the Boolooroo. "I
shall march these three strangers through the Arch, and if by chance
they come out alive, I'll do a new sort of patching--I'll chop off
their heads and mix 'em up, putting the wrong head on each of 'em. Ha, ha! Won't it be funny to see the old Moonface's head on the little girl? Ho, ho! I really hope they'll come out of the Great Blue Grotto alive!"
"I also hope they will," replied Ghip-Ghisizzle.