<h2 id="c5"><span class="smaller">Chapter 5</span> <br/>In The City of The Figure Heads</h2>
<p>“It reminds me of something disagreeable,” answered
Kabumpo, as he eyed the flag. Nevertheless
he quickened his steps and in a moment they came
to a clearing in the forest, surrounded by a tall black
picket fence. The only thing visible above the fence
was the strange black flag, and as the forest on either
side was too dense to penetrate and there seemed to
be no way around, Kabumpo thumped loudly on the
center gate.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</div>
<p>It was flung open at once, so suddenly that
Kabumpo, who had his head pressed against the bars,
fell on his knees and shot Pompadore clear over his
head. Altogether it was a very undignified entrance.</p>
<p>“Oh! Oh! Now we shall have some fun!” screamed
a high, thin voice, and immediately the cry was taken
up by hundreds of other voices. A perfect swarm of
strange creatures surrounded the two travelers. The
Elegant Elephant took one look, put back his ears and
snatched Pompa from the paving stones.</p>
<p>“Stop that!” he rumbled threateningly. “Who are
you anyway?” The crowd paid no attention to the
Elegant Elephant’s question, but continued to dance
up and down and scream with glee. Clutching Kabumpo’s
ear, Pompa peered down with many misgivings.
They were entirely surrounded by thin, spry
little people, who had figures instead of heads, and the
fours, eights, sevens and ciphers bobbing up and down
made it terribly confusing.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</div>
<p>“Let’s go!” said Pompa, who was growing dizzier
every minute. But the Figure Heads were wedged so
closely around them Kabumpo could not move and
they were shouting so lustily that the Elegant Elephant’s
voice was drowned in the hubbub. Finally,
Kabumpo’s eyes began to snap angrily and, taking a
deep breath, he threw up his trunk and trumpeted like
fifty ferry-boat whistles. The effect was immediate
and astonishing. Half of the Figure Heads fell on
their faces, and the other half fell on their backs and
stared vacantly up at the sky.</p>
<p>“Conduct us to your Ruler!” roared Kabumpo, in
the dead silence that followed.</p>
<p>“How’d you know we had a Ruler?” asked a Seven,
getting cautiously to its feet.</p>
<p>“Most countries have,” said the Elegant Elephant
shortly.</p>
<p>“He’s got no right to order us around,” said a Six,
sitting up and jerking its thumb at Kabumpo.</p>
<p>“Yes—but!” Seven frowned at Six and put his
hands over his ears. “This way,” he said gruffly, and
Kabumpo, stepping carefully, for many of the Figure
Heads were still on their backs, followed Seven.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</div>
<p>If the inhabitants of this strange city were queer,
their city was even more so. The air was dry and
choky and the houses were dull, oblong affairs, set in
rows and rows with never a garden in sight. Each
street had a large signpost on the corner, but they
were not like the signs one usually sees in cities.
For these were <i>plus</i> and <i>minus</i> signs with here and
there a <i>long division</i> sign.</p>
<p>“I suppose everything in this street’s divided up,”
mumbled Pompadore, looking up at a division sign
curiously.</p>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_065.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="600" height-obs="412" /></div>
<p>“Hope they don’t subtract any of our belongings,”
whispered Kabumpo, as they turned into Minus Alley.
“Look, Pompa, at the houses. Ever see anything like
’em before?”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</div>
<p>“They remind me of something disagreeable,”
mused the Prince. “Why, they’re <i>books</i>, Kabumpo,
great big arithmetic books!” Pompa pointed at one.</p>
<p>“You mean they are shaped like books,” said the
Elegant Elephant. “I never saw books with windows
and doors!”</p>
<p>“A lot you know!” said Seven, looking back scornfully,
but Kabumpo was too interested to care. Out of
the windows of the big book houses leaped hundreds
of the little Figure Heads, and they laughed and
jeered at Pompa and Kabumpo.</p>
<p>“Ho! Ho!” yelled one, leaning out so far it nearly
fell on its Eight. “Wait till the Count sees ’em. He’ll
make an example of ’em!”</p>
<p>“What an awful country,” whispered Pompadore,
ducking just in time, as a Four snatched at his hair
from an open window. But just then they turned a
corner and entered a large gloomy court. Sitting on a
square and solid wood throne, surrounded by a guard
of Figure Heads, sat the Giant Ruler of this strange
city.</p>
<p>“What have you got there, Seven?” roared the
Ruler.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</div>
<p>“I am the Elegant Elephant and this is the Prince
of Pumperdink,” announced Kabumpo before Seven
could answer. Pompadore, himself, could say nothing
for he had never before been addressed by a wooden
Ruler in his life. And that is exactly what the King
of the Figure Heads was—an ordinary school ruler,
twice as large as a man, with arms and legs and a great
square head set atop of his thin flat body.</p>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_067.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="600" height-obs="424" /></div>
<p>“I don’t care a rap <i>who</i> you are. I want to know
<i>what</i> you are?” said the Ruler.</p>
<p>“We are travelers,” spoke up Pompa, swallowing
hard—“travelers in search of a Proper Princess.”</p>
<p>“Well, you won’t find any here,” grunted the Ruler
shortly. “We don’t believe in ’em!”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</div>
<p>“Would you mind telling me the name of your Kingdom,”
asked Pompa, somewhat cast down by these
words.</p>
<p>“You have no heads,” announced the Ruler calmly,
“or you would have known that this is Rith Metic. <i>I</i>,”
he hammered himself upon the wooden chest—“I am
its Ruler and every inch a King—King of the Figure
Heads,” he added, glaring around as if he expected
someone to contradict him.</p>
<p>“All right! All right!” wheezed Kabumpo, bowing
his head twice. “I knew twelve inches made a foot
rule, but I never knew they made a King Rule. But
could you give us some luncheon and allow us to pass
peaceably through your Kingdom?”</p>
<p>“Pass through!” exclaimed the King, standing up
indignantly. “We don’t pass anyone through here.
You’ve got to work your way through. Pass through,
indeed! And when you’ve worked your way through
we’ll put you in a problem and make an example of
you.”</p>
<p>“They’ll make a very good example, your Majesty,”
said a tall thin individual standing next to the Ruler.
He eyed the two cunningly. “If a thin Prince sets out
on a fat elephant to find a Proper Princess, how many
yards of fringe will the elephant lose from his robe and
how bald will the Prince be at the end of the journey?
I don’t believe anyone could figure that out,” he murmured
gleefully.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</div>
<p>“It might be done by subtraction,” said the King,
looking at the two critically.</p>
<p>“Great hay stacks!” rumbled Kabumpo, glaring
over his shoulder to see if he had lost any fringe so far.
“What have we gotten into?”</p>
<p>“Bald!” gulped Pompa, rubbing his head. “Do you
mean to say you take poor innocent travelers and
make them into arithmetic problems?”</p>
<p>“Why not?” said the thin one, who looked exactly
like a giant lead pencil. “And please address me as
Count, after this—Count It Up is my name. What’s
the matter with living in a problem, my boy? Life is
a problem, after all, and you will get used to it in time.
I’ll try to assign you to a comfortable book and you’ll
find book-keeping a lot more simple than house-keeping.
This way, please!”</p>
<p>“Please go,” yawned the Ruler, waving his hand.
“The Count will take you in charge now.” And so
dazed was the Elegant Elephant by all this strange
reasoning that he tamely followed the lead pencil person.</p>
<p>“Good-bye!” shouted the Ruler hoarsely. “Start
them on simple additions,” he said as they moved off.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</div>
<p>The street ahead was filled with Figure Heads and
as Kabumpo paused they began forming themselves
into sums. The first row sat down, the next knelt
behind them, the third stood up, the fourth nimbly
leaped upon the shoulders of the third, and so on,
until a long addition confronted the travelers.</p>
<p>“Now,” said Count It Up in his blunt way, “as you
haven’t figures for heads, let us see if you have heads
for figures.” Kabumpo pushed back his pearl headdress
and drops of perspiration began to run down his
trunk. Prince Pompa, lying flat on Kabumpo’s head,
started to add up the first line of figures.</p>
<p>“Eighty-three,” he announced anxiously.</p>
<p>“Say three and eight to carry,” snapped Count It
Up. “Here, Three!” A Three stepped out of the
crowd and placed itself under the line. “I’ve got to be
carried!” cried Eight, looking sulkily at Pompa.</p>
<p>“Carried!” snorted Kabumpo, snatching Eight into
the air. “Well, I’ll attend to you. You do the adding,
Pompa, and I’ll do the carrying.”</p>
<p>He landed the Eight head down at the bottom of the
line of Figure Heads and swung his trunk carelessly
while he waited for his next victim. So, slowly and
painfully, Pompa counted up the long lines and Kabumpo
carried and if they made the slightest mistake
the Figure Heads shouted with scorn and danced
about till the confusion was terrible. When an example
was finished, the Figure Heads in it marched
away but another would immediately form lines ahead
so that it took them a whole hour to go two blocks.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_071.jpg" alt="Slowly and Painfully Pompa Counted up the Long Lines" width-obs="500" height-obs="707" /> <p class="caption"><span class="sc">Slowly and Painfully Pompa Counted up the Long Lines</span></p> </div>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</div>
<p>“Oh!” groaned Pompa at last, “We’ll never get
through this, Kabumpo. Look at those awful fractions
ahead! Can’t I skip fractions?” he asked looking
pleadingly at Count It Up.</p>
<p>“Certainly not!” said the pencilly man stroking his
shiny hair, which was straight and black and grew up
into a sharp point. “You shall skip nothing!”</p>
<p>“That gives me an idea,” whispered Kabumpo huskily.
“Why shouldn’t we skip altogether? We’re
bigger than they are. Why—”</p>
<p>“How are you getting on?” At the sound of that
hoarse, familiar voice both the Prince and Kabumpo
jumped.</p>
<p>“You don’t mind me asking, I hope?” Clinging to
the high picket fence and looking anxiously through
the bars was the Curious Cottabus.</p>
<p>“Have you found the Greatest Common Divisor
yet?”</p>
<p>“Who’s he?” asked the Elegant Elephant suspiciously.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</div>
<p>“Isn’t there any way out of Rith Metic but this?”
wailed Pompa, looking at the Cottabus pleadingly.
He was too tired to mind being questioned.</p>
<p>The curious beast was delighted to have this new
opportunity to talk to the travelers.</p>
<p>“Will you answer a few questions if I tell you?”
asked the Cottabus, raising itself with great difficulty
and looking over the palings.</p>
<p>“Yes—yes—anything,” promised Pompa.</p>
<p>“Do you care for strawberry tarts?” asked the Cottabus,
twitching its nose very rapidly.</p>
<p>“Of course,” said the Prince. “Oh! Do hurry. Count
It Up will be back in a moment!” He had run ahead to
arrange a new problem and the rest of the Figure
Heads paid no attention to the queer creature clinging
to the palings.</p>
<p>“Are you going to invite the Scarecrow to your wedding?”
gulped the Cottabus.</p>
<p>“I don’t know any Scarecrow,” said Pompa, “so
how could I?”</p>
<p>“Are you fond of that old elephant?” The Cottabus
waved at Kabumpo, who stamped first one foot then
another and fairly snorted with rage.</p>
<p>“All right,” sighed the Curious Cottabus, “that
makes my fifty questions.”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</div>
<p>Hanging on to the fence with one paw it waved the
other backward and forward as it chanted:</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“How many tics in Rith Metic?</p>
<p class="t0">Tell me that and tell me quick!</p>
<p class="t0">But if you can’t it’s not my fault,</p>
<p class="t0">So simply turn a wintersault!”</p>
</div>
<p>The head of the Cottabus disappeared.</p>
<p>“Now isn’t that provoking,” gulped the Prince.
“After it promised to help us, too!”</p>
<p>“I meant summersault,” wheezed the Cottabus, reappearing
suddenly—</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“And if you can’t it’s not your fault,</p>
<p class="t0">So simply turn a summersault!”</p>
</div>
<p class="pnindent">it recited dolefully, and losing its balance fell off the
fence and landed with a thud on the ground below.</p>
<p>“Here! Hurry along!” scolded Count It Up, prodding
Kabumpo with a sharp pencil. “The next is a
nice little problem in fractions.”</p>
<p>“I wonder if it meant anything?” mused Pompadore,
as Kabumpo approached the new problem. “’If
you can’t its not your fault, so simply turn a summersault.’
Anyway it wouldn’t hurt to try. Stop a minute,
Kabumpo!”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</div>
<p>Sliding down the Elegant Elephant’s trunk, the
Prince put his head on the ground and very carefully
and deliberately turned a somersault. At his first
motion Count It Up gave a deafening scream, fell on
his head and broke off his point, while the Figure
Heads began to run in every direction.</p>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_077.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="600" height-obs="320" /></div>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</div>
<p>“Do it again! Do it again!” cried Kabumpo joyfully.
So Pompa turned another somersault and
another, and another, and <i>another</i>, till not a Figure
Head was in sight. Even the Figure Heads at the windows
of the houses tumbled out and dashed madly
around the corner. Before they could return, Kabumpo
snatched up Pompa and tore through the deserted
streets of Rith Metic till he came to the black
iron gate at the other end of the city. Butting it open
with his head, the Elegant Elephant dashed through
and never stopped running till he was miles away from
there.</p>
<p>“Have to rest a bit and eat some leaves,” puffed
Kabumpo, at last slowing down. “Whe—w!”</p>
<p>“Wish I could eat leaves,” sighed the Prince, as
Kabumpo began lunching off the tree tops. “But,
never mind, we’re out of Rith Metic! Wasn’t it lucky
that Cottabus followed us? I never would have
thought of getting out of sums by somersaulting.
Would you?”</p>
<p>“Only sensible thing it ever said, probably,” answered
the Elegant Elephant, with his mouth full of
leaves. “There’s a lot more to be learned by traveling
than by studying, my boy. Somersaults for
sums—let’s always remember that!”</p>
<p>Pompa did not answer. He slid down Kabumpo’s
trunk and began hunting anxiously around for something
to eat. Not far away he found a large nut tree
and, gathering a handful of nuts, he sat down and
began to crack them on a white marble slab near by.
Next instant Kabumpo heard a thud and a muffled cry.</p>
<p>The Prince of Pumperdink had vanished, as if by
magic.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</div>
<p>“Where are you?” screamed the Elegant Elephant,
pounding through the brush. “Pompa! Pompa!
He’s disappeared,” gasped Kabumpo, rushing over to
the marble slab. There was not a sign of the Royal
Prince of Pumperdink anywhere, but carved carefully
on the white stone were these words:</p>
<div class="box">
<p class="center">Please Knock Before You Fall In.</p>
</div>
<p>“Fall in!” snorted Kabumpo, his eyes rolling wildly.
“Great Gooch!”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_080.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="500" height-obs="519" /></div>
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