Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction; Oz (Imaginary place) -- Juvenile fiction
"Revenge! Revenge!" shrilled the turbaned native, clenching his fists.
"Now shall Boglodore have his reward!" Addressing himself to Chunum and
Samuel Salt, the Old Man of the Jungle began screaming out the story
of his wrongs. "For these scheming rascals I carried away on Umbo,
my great and useful umbrellaphant, the young King of this country.
For this I was to receive one-tenth of the Kingdom, the Ozamandarins
themselves to divide the rest of the country among them. But Hah!
What happened?" Dancing up and down on the elephant's head, Boglodore
again clenched his fists, his face distorted with rage and fury. "What
happened? Why, these miserable cheats refused to pay me, intending to
keep the whole country for themselves. But hearken well, you and YOU!"
Jerking his thumb contemptuously toward his rigid and helpless enemies,
the Old Man continued his story.
"All along I have suspected these thieving Zamans; all along I intended
to fool them and return the little King to his castle, keeping only
the jungle for my own. That is why I built the boy his cage in the
jungle and set Nikobo, the great hippopotamus, to watch over him,
giving her the power of speech and the desire to seek out and protect
this unfortunate child of an unfortunate country. I am a magician and
could well bring about these things. You, whoever you are, who found
and brought him back to Ozamaland did no more than I myself intended to
do and intend to do now. After restoring Tandy to his throne, I meant
to deal with his enemies, and now as they are so neatly bound up and
ready, I shall reward them well for their pains and treachery."
"Stop! Stop! Avast there and belay!" shouted Samuel Salt as the
umbrellaphant, obeying an order from the terrible Old Man, picked up
Didjabo in his trunk and flew swiftly toward the cliff's edge. But
Chunum, again dragging Samuel down, whispered fiercely in his ear.
"It is justice, seaman, and only what we ourselves planned to do. The
vines will keep these rogues afloat for two days, then haply they will
sink--not to die, as death comes not to the people of my country, but
to lie for long forgotten ages at the bottom of the sea, harmless and
sodden, and unable to do any more harm to the country they have so
dishonorably served and betrayed!"
Shuddering and in a tense silence, Samuel and the Sheik watched the
umbrellaphant toss the wretched Ozamandarins one after the other into
the sea. The immense zooming monster fascinated the Captain of the
_Crescent Moon_. Not wings, but a balloon-like structure of its own
tough skin billowing over its back like a howdah, enabled Umbo to
navigate in the air. Samuel was anxious for further talk with the Old
Man of the Jungle, but as the last Ozamandarin fell over the cliff the
umbrellaphant, with a trumpet of defiance, headed rapidly for the open
sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account