Sky Island
Page 21
GHIP-GHISIZZLE HAS A BAD TIME
CHAPTER 20.
The Boolooroo was quite busy at the time the Pinkies invaded hiscountry. He had discovered the loss of the Book of Records and afterbeing frightened 'most to death at the prospect of his fraud on thepeople's being made public, he decided to act boldly and hold hisposition as Boolooroo at any cost.
Since Ghip-Ghisizzle was to be the next Boolooroo, the king suspectedhim first of all, so he had the Majordomo bound with cords and broughtbefore him, when he accused him of stealing the Book of Records. Ofcourse Ghip-Ghisizzle denied taking the Book, but he became almost asnervous at its loss as had the Boolooroo. He secretly believed thatButton-Bright had taken the Book from the Treasure Chamber, and if thiswere true it might prove as great a misfortune as if the king had keptit locked up. For Button-Bright had escaped into the Fog Bank andGhip-Ghisizzle was afraid the boy would never again be seen in the BlueCountry.
He did not tell the Boolooroo of this suspicion, because in that casethe king would realize he was secure, and that his deception could neverbe proved against him. The Majordomo simply denied taking the RecordBook, and the Boolooroo did not believe he spoke truly. To prevent hisrival from ever becoming the Ruler of the Blue Country the Boolooroodetermined to have him patched, but for some time he could find no otherBlueskin to patch him with. No one had disobeyed a command or doneanything wrong, so the king was in a quandary until he discovered that aservant named Tiggle had mixed the royal nectar for Cap'n Bill, who hadbeen ordered to do it at the time of his capture. This was sufficientexcuse for the Boolooroo, who at once had Tiggle made a prisoner andbrought before him.
This servant was not so long-legged as Ghip-Ghisizzle and his head wasthicker and his nose flatter. But that pleased the Boolooroo all themore. He realized that when the great knife had sliced the prisoners intwo, and their halves were patched together, they would present aridiculous sight and all the Blueskins would laugh at them and avoidthem. So, on the very morning that the Pinkies arrived, the Boolooroohad ordered his two prisoners brought into the room of the palace wherethe Great Knife stood and his soldiers were getting ready to perform theoperation of patching Ghip-Ghisizzle with Tiggle, when a messenger camerunning to say that a great army of the Pinkies had broken through theFog Bank.
"Never mind," said the Boolooroo, "I'll attend to them in a minute. I'mbusy now."
"They are marching on the City," said the frightened messenger. "If youdelay, Most High and Mighty One, we shall all be captured. You'd bettersave your City first and do your patching afterward."
"What!" roared the Boolooroo, "dare you dictate to me?" But he wasimpressed by the man's logic. After locking the prisoners, who werestill bound, in the Room of the Great Knife, the Ruler hurried away toassemble his soldiers.
By this time the Pinkies had advanced halfway to the walls of the City,so the first thing the Boolooroo did was to order all the gates closedand locked and then he placed a line of soldiers on the wall to preventany of the Pinkies from climbing over.
Therefore when Cap'n Bill's army reached the wall he was obliged to halthis ranks until he could find a way to enter the City.
Now when the Boolooroo looked through the blue-steel bars of the maingate and saw the enemy armed with sharp-pointed sticks, he began totremble; and when he thought how painful it would be to have his bodyand arms and legs prodded and pricked by such weapons he groaned aloudand was very miserable. But the thought occurred to him that if he couldavoid being caught by the Pinkies they would be unable to harm him. Sohe went among his people and reminded them how horrible it would feel tobe punched full of holes by the invaders, and urged them to fightdesperately and drive the Pinkies back into the Fog Bank.
Only a few of the Blueskins were soldiers, and these all belonged to theKing's bodyguard, but the citizens realized they must indeed fightbravely to save themselves from getting hurt, so they promised theBoolooroo to do all they could. They armed themselves with long cordshaving weights fastened to the ends, and practiced throwing theseweights in such a manner that the cords would wind around their enemies.Also they assembled in the streets in small groups and told each otherin frightened whispers that all their trouble was due to the Boolooroo'scruel treatment of the Earth people. If he had received them as friendsinstead of making them slaves, they would never have escaped to thePinkies and brought an army into the Blue Country, that they might berevenged. The Blueskins had not liked their Boolooroo, before this, andnow they began to hate him, forgetting they had also treated thestrangers in a very disagreeable manner.
Meantime the Six Snubnosed Princesses had seen from their rooms in atower of the palace the army of the Pinkies marching upon them, and thesight had served to excite them greatly. They had been quarrelingbitterly among themselves all the morning, and strangely enough thisquarrel was all about which of them should marry Ghip-Ghisizzle. Theyknew that some day the Majordomo would become Boolooroo, and each one ofthe six had determined to marry him so as to be the Queen--and thusforce her sisters to obey her commands. They paid no attention to thefact that Ghip-Ghisizzle did not want to marry any of them, for they haddetermined that when it was agreed who should have him they would asktheir father to force the man to marry.
While they quarreled in one room of the palace Ghip-Ghisizzle was indanger of being patched in another room; but the Six SnubnosedPrincesses did not know that. The arrival of the Pinkies gave themsomething new to talk about, so they hurried downstairs and along thecorridors so as to gain the courtyard and take part in the excitingscenes.
But as they passed the closed door of the Room of the Great Knife theyheard a low moan and stopped to listen. The moan was repeated and, beingcurious, they unlocked the door--the key having been left on theoutside--and entered the room.
At once the Pinkies were forgotten, for there upon the floor, tightlybound, lay Ghip-Ghisizzle, and beside him poor Tiggle, who had utteredthe moans.
The six Princesses sat down in a circle facing the captives and Ceruliasaid:
"Ghip, my dear, we will release you on one condition: That you choose awife from among us and promise to marry the one selected, as soon as thePinkies are driven back into the Fog Bank."
Ghip-Ghisizzle managed to shake his head. Then he said:
"Really, ladies, you must excuse me. I'd rather be patched thanmismatched, as I would be with a lovely snubnosed wife. You are toobeautiful for me; go seek your husbands elsewhere."
"Monster!" cried Indigo; "if you choose me I'll scratch your eyes out!"
"If you choose me," said Cobalt, in a rage, "I'll tear out your hair bythe roots!"
"If I am to be your wife," screamed Azure. "I'll mark your obstinateface with my finger nails!"
"And I," said Turquoise, passionately, "will pound your head with abroomstick!"
"I'll shake him till his teeth rattle!" shrieked Sapphire.
"The best way to manage a husband," observed Cerulia angrily, "is topull his nose."
"Ladies," said Ghip-Ghisizzle, when he had a chance to speak, "do notanticipate these pleasures, I beg of you, for I shall choose none amongyou for a wife."
"We'll see about that," said Indigo.
"I think you will soon change your mind," added Azure.
"I'm going to be patched to Tiggle, here, as soon as the Booloorooreturns," said Ghip-Ghisizzle, "and it's against the law for a patchedman to marry anyone. It's regarded as half-bigamy."
"Dear me!" cried Cobalt; "if he's patched he never can be Boolooroo."
"Then he mustn't be patched," declared Sapphire. "We must save him fromthat fate, girls, and force him to decide among us. Otherwise, none ofus can ever be the Queen."
This being evident, they proceeded to unbind the long legs ofGhip-Ghisizzle, leaving his body and arms, however, tied fast together.Then between them they got him upon his feet and led him away, paying noattention to poor Tiggle, who whined to be released so he could fight inthe war.
After a hurried consultation the Six Snubnosed Prince
sses decided tohide the Majordomo in one of their boudoirs, so they dragged him up thestairs to their reception room and fell to quarreling as to whoseboudoir should be occupied by their captive. Not being able to settlethe question they finally locked him up in a vacant room across the halland told him he must stay there until he had decided to marry one of thePrincesses and could make a choice among them.