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Kabumpo in Oz (version 2)

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<h2 id="c3"><span class="smaller">Chapter 3</span> <br/>Kabumpo and Pompa Disappear</h2> <p>Once in his own apartment, Kabumpo pulled the bell rope furiously.</p> <p>“My pearls and my purple plush robe! Bring them at once!” he puffed when his personal attendant appeared in the doorway.</p> <div class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</div> <p>“Yes, Sir! Are you going out, Sir?” murmured the little Pumperdinkian, hastening to a great chest in the corner of the big marble room, to get out of the robe.</p> <p>“Not unless disappearing is going out,” said Kabumpo more mildly, for he was quite fond of this little man who waited on him. “But I’m liable to disappear any minute. So are you. So is everybody, and I, for my part, wish to do the thing well and disappear with as much elegance as possible. Have you heard about the magic scroll, Spezzle?”</p> <p>“Yes, Sir!” quavered Spezzle, mounting a ladder to adjust the Elegant Elephant’s pearls and gorgeous robe of state. “Yes, Sir, and my head’s going round and round like—”</p> <p>“Like what?” asked Kabumpo, looking approvingly at his reflection in the long mirror.</p> <p>“I can’t rightly say, Sir,” sighed Spezzle. “This disappearing has me that mixed up I don’t know what I’m doing.”</p> <p>“Well, don’t start by losing your head,” chuckled Kabumpo. “There—that will do very well.” He lifted the little man down from the ladder.</p> <p>“Good-bye, Spezzle. If you should disappear before I should see you again, try to do it in style.”</p> <p>“Yes, Sir!” gulped Spezzle. Then taking out a bright red handkerchief he blew his nose violently and rushed out of the room.</p> <div class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</div> <p>Kabumpo walked up and down before the mirror, surveying himself from all angles. A very gorgeous appearance he presented, in his purple plush robe of state, all embroidered in silver, and his head bands of shining pearls. In the left side of his robe there was a deep pocket. Into this the Elegant Elephant slipped all the jewels he possessed, taking them from a drawer in the chest.</p> <p>“I must get that gold door knob,” he rumbled thoughtfully. “And the mirror.” Noiselessly (for all his tremendous size, Kabumpo could move without a sound) he made his way back to the banquet hall and loomed up suddenly behind the Prime Pumper. The old fellow was staring with popping eyes into the gold mirror.</p> <p>“Ho, Ho!” roared Kabumpo. “Ho, Ho! Kerumph!”</p> <p>No wonder! Above the shocked reflection of the foolish statesman stood the words “Old Goose!”</p> <p>“A truthful mirror, indeed,” wheezed the Elegant Elephant.</p> <p>“Heh? What?” stuttered the Prime Pumper, slapping the mirror down on the table in a hurry. “Where’d you come from? What are you all dressed up for?”</p> <div class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</div> <p>“For my disappearance,” said Kabumpo, sweeping the door knob and mirror into his pocket. “I’m getting ready to disappear. How do I look?”</p> <p>Before the Prime Pumper had time to answer, the Elegant Elephant was gone.</p> <p>Back in his own room, Kabumpo paced impatiently up and down, waiting for night. “I do not see how she could refuse us,” he mumbled every now and then to himself.</p> <div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_045.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="580" height-obs="500" /></div> <div class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</div> <p>That was an anxious afternoon and evening in the palace of Pumperdink. Every few minutes the Courtiers felt themselves nervously to see if they were still there. The servants went about on tip-toe, looking fearfully over their shoulders for the first signs of disappearance. As it grew darker the gates and windows were securely barred and not a candle was lighted. “The less the castle shows, the less likely it is to disappear,” reasoned the King.</p> <p>The darkness suited Kabumpo. He waited until everyone in the palace had retired, and a full hour longer. Then he stepped softly down the passage to the Prince’s apartment. Pompadore, without undressing had flung himself upon a couch and fallen into an uneasy slumber.</p> <p>Without making a sound, Kabumpo took the Prince’s crown from a dressing cabinet, slipped it carefully into the pocket of his robe, and then carefully lifted the sleeping Prince in his curling trunk and started cautiously down the great hall. Setting him gently on the floor as he reached the palace doors, he pushed back the golden bolts and stepped out into the garden.</p> <p>The voices of the watchmen calling to each other from the great wall came faintly through the darkness, but the Elegant Elephant hurried to a secret unguarded entrance known only to himself and Pompadore and passed like a great shadow through the swinging gates. Once outside, he swung the sleeping Prince to his broad back and ran swiftly and silently through the night.</p> <div class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</div> <p>“What are we doing?” murmured the Prince drowsily in his sleep.</p> <div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_047.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="600" height-obs="395" /></div> <p>“Disappearing,” chuckled Kabumpo under his breath. “Disappearing from Pumperdink, my lad.”</p> <div class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</div> <div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_048.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="500" height-obs="535" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />

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