THE BLUE CITY
CHAPTER 8.
The Blue City was quite extensive, and consisted of many broad streetspaved with blue marble and lined with splendid buildings of the samebeautiful material. There were houses and castles and shops for themerchants and all were prettily designed and had many slender spires andimposing turrets that rose far into the blue air. Everything was bluehere, just as was everything in the Royal Palace and gardens, and a bluehaze overhung all the city.
"Doesn't the sun ever shine?" asked Cap'n Bill.
"Not in the blue part of Sky Island," replied Ghip-Ghisizzle. "The moonshines here every night, but we never see the sun. I am told, however,that on the other half of the Island--which I have never seen--the sunshines brightly but there is no moon at all."
"Oh," said Button-Bright; "is there another half to Sky Island?"
"Yes; a dreadful place called the Pink Country. I'm told everythingthere is pink instead of blue. A fearful place it must be, indeed!" saidthe Blueskin, with a shudder.
"I dunno 'bout that," remarked Cap'n Bill. "That Pink Country soundskind o' cheerful to me. Is your Blue Country very big?"
"It is immense," was the proud reply. "This enormous City extends a halfmile in all directions from the center, and the country outside the Cityis fully a half mile further in extent. That's very big, isn't it?"
"Not very," replied Cap'n Bill, with a smile. "We've cities on the Earthten times bigger--an' then some big besides. We'd call this a small townin our country."
"Our Country is thousands of miles wide and thousands of mileslong--it's the great United States of America!" added the boy,earnestly.
Ghip-Ghisizzle seemed astonished. He was silent a moment, and then hesaid:
"Here in Sky Island we prize truthfulness very highly. Our Boolooroo isnot very truthful, I admit, for he is trying to misrepresent the lengthof his reign, but our people as a rule speak only the truth."
"So do we," asserted Cap'n Bill. "What Button-Bright said is the honesttruth--every word of it."
"But we have been led to believe that Sky Island is the greatest countryin the universe--meaning, of course, our half of it, the Blue Country."
"It may be for you, perhaps," the sailor stated, politely, "an' I don'timagine any island floatin' in the sky is any bigger. But the Universeis a big place an' you can't be sure of what's in it till you'vetraveled, like we have."
"Perhaps you are right," mused the Blueskin; but he still seemed todoubt them.
"Is the Pink side of Sky Island bigger than the Blue side?" askedButton-Bright.
"No; it is supposed to be the same size," was the reply.
"Then why haven't you ever been there? Seems to me you could walk acrossthe whole island in an hour," said the boy.
"The two parts are separated by an impassable barrier," answeredGhip-Ghisizzle. "Between them lies the Great Fog Bank."
"A fog bank? Why, that's no barrier!" exclaimed Cap'n Bill.
"It is, indeed," returned the Blueskin. "The Fog Bank is so thick andheavy that it blinds one, and if once you got into the Bank you mightwander forever and not find your way out again. Also it is full ofdampness that wets your clothes and your hair until you becomemiserable. It is furthermore said that those who enter the Fog Bankforfeit the six hundred years allowed them to live, and are liable todie at any time. Here we do not die, you know; we merely pass away."
"How's that?" asked the sailor. "Isn't 'pass'n' away' jus' the same asdyin'?"
"No, indeed. When our six hundred years are ended we march into theGreat Blue Grotto, through the Arch of Phinis, and are never seenagain."
"That's queer," said Button-Bright. "What would happen if you didn'tmarch through the Arch?"
"I do not know, for no one has ever refused to do so. It is the Law, andwe all obey it."
"It saves funeral expenses, anyhow," remarked Cap'n Bill. "Where is thisArch?"
"Just outside the gates of the City. There is a mountain in the centerof the Blue land, and the entrance to the Great Blue Grotto is at thefoot of the mountain. According to our figures the Boolooroo ought tomarch into this Grotto a hundred years from next Thursday, but he istrying to steal a hundred years and so perhaps he won't enter the Archof Phinis. Therefore, if you will please be patient for about a hundredyears, you will discover what happens to one who breaks the Law."
"Thank'e," remarked Cap'n Bill. "I don't expect to be very curious, ahundred years from now."
"Nor I," added Button-Bright, laughing at the whimsical speech. "But Idon't see how the Boolooroo is able to fool you all. Can't any of youremember two or three hundred years back, when he first began to rule?"
"No," said Ghip-Ghisizzle; "that's a long time to remember, and weBlueskins try to forget all we can--especially whatever is unpleasant.Those who remember are usually the unhappy ones; only those able toforget find the most joy in life."
During this conversation they had been walking along the streets of theBlue City, where many of the Blueskin inhabitants stopped to gazewonderingly at the sailor and the boy, whose strange appearancesurprised them. They were a nervous, restless people and theiregg-shaped heads, set on the ends of long thin necks, seemed sogrotesque to the strangers that they could scarcely forbear laughing atthem. The bodies of these people were short and round and their legsexceptionally long, so when a Blueskin walked he covered twice as muchground at one step as Cap'n Bill or Button-Bright did. The women seemedjust as repellent as the men, and Button-Bright began to understand thatthe Six Snubnosed Princesses were, after all, rather better looking thanmost of the females of the Blue Country and so had a certain right to beproud and haughty.
There were no horses nor cows in this land, but there were plenty ofblue goats, from which the people got their milk. Children tended thegoats--wee Blueskin boys and girls whose appearance was so comical thatButton-Bright laughed whenever he saw one of them.
Although the natives had never seen before this any human beings made asButton-Bright and Cap'n Bill were, they took a strong dislike to thestrangers and several times threatened to attack them. Perhaps ifGhip-Ghisizzle, who was their favorite, had not been present, they wouldhave mobbed our friends with vicious ill-will and might have seriouslyinjured them. But Ghip-Ghisizzle's friendly protection made them holdaloof.
By and by they passed through a City gate and their guide showed themthe outer walls, which protected the City from the country beyond. Therewere several of these gates, and from their recesses stone steps led tothe top of the wall. They mounted a flight of these steps and from theirelevation plainly saw the low mountain where the Arch of Phinis waslocated, and beyond that the thick, blue-gray Fog Bank, which constantlyrolled like billows of the ocean and really seemed, from a distance,quite forbidding.
"But it wouldn't take long to get there," decided Button-Bright, "and ifyou were close up it might not be worse than any other fog. Is the PinkCountry on the other side of it?"
"So we are told in the Book of Records," replied Ghip-Ghisizzle. "Noneof us now living know anything about it, but the Book of Records callsit the 'Sunset Country,' and says that at evening the pink shades aredrowned by terrible colors of orange and crimson and golden-yellow andred. Wouldn't it be horrible to be obliged to look upon such a sight? Itmust give the poor people who live there dreadful headaches."
"I'd like to see that Book of Records," mused Cap'n Bill, who didn'tthink the discription of the Sunset Country at all dreadful.
"I'd like to see it myself," returned Ghip-Ghisizzle, with a sigh; "butno one can lay hands on it because the Boolooroo keeps it safely lockedup in his Treasure Chamber."
"Where's the key to the Treasure Chamber?" asked Button-Bright.
"The Boolooroo keeps it in his pocket, night and day," was the reply."He is afraid to let anyone see the Book, because it would prove he hasalready reigned three hundred years next Thursday, and then he wouldhave to resign the throne to me and leave the Palace and live in acommon house."
"My Magic Umbrella is in that
Treasure Chamber," said Button-Bright,"and I'm going to try to get it."
"Are you?" inquired Ghip-Ghisizzle, eagerly. "Well, if you manage toenter the Treasure Chamber, be sure to bring me the Book of Records. Ifyou can do that I will be the best and most grateful friend you everhad!"
"I'll see," said the boy. "It ought not to be hard work to break intothe Treasure Chamber. Is it guarded?"
"Yes; the outside guard is Jimfred Jinksjones, the double patch of theFredjim whom you have met, and the inside guard is a ravenous creatureknown as the Blue Wolf, which has teeth a foot long and as sharp asneedles."
"Oh," said Button-Bright. "But never mind the Blue Wolf; I must manageto get my umbrella, somehow or other."
They now walked back to the palace, still objects of much curiosity tothe natives, who sneered at them and mocked them but dared not interferewith their progress. At the palace they found that dinner was about tobe served in the big dining hall of the servants and dependents andhousehold officers of the royal Boolooroo. Ghip-Ghisizzle was theMajordomo and Master of Ceremonies, so he took his seat at the end ofthe long table and placed Cap'n Bill on one side of him andButton-Bright on the other, to the great annoyance of the otherBlueskins present, who favored the strangers with nothing pleasanterthan envious scowls.
The Boolooroo and his Queen and daughters--the Six SnubnosedPrincesses--dined in formal state in the Banquet Hall, where they werewaited upon by favorite soldiers of the Royal Bodyguard. Here in theservants' hall there was one vacant seat next to Button-Bright which wasreserved for Trot; but the little girl had not yet appeared and thesailorman and the boy were beginning to be uneasy about her.
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