"Hoity, toity! Not so fast," said the parrot. "I've no doubt you think yourself very grand with your kid gloves and your consequential airs; but allow me to inform you that _I_ am some one of consequence in these parts, too. I am a police officer, and regulate the traffic, so move on, there, and don't block the way." "Oh!" cried Marjorie, "if this--er--" (she was going to say "bird," but thought perhaps the parrot might be offended, and she certainly couldn't say "gentleman," so she got out of it this way)--"if this is a police officer, perhaps he could be kind enough to direct us to where the steamboats start for England." "I daresay I _could_ if I wanted to," said the parrot, ungraciously, "but I don't choose. Move on! You are stopping the traffic." "What nonsense! you ridiculous bird; there is not any traffic," said Dick. "Oh! isn't there? A lot _you_ know about it," replied the parrot. "There's a vehicle coming along this way now." The children turned around, and, sure enough, there was a something coming down the road, though what it was the children couldn't determine till it came a little closer. They waited and waited, but it scarcely seemed to move at all, and, at last, Dick, whose curiosity was greatly aroused, proposed going to meet it. "Let's go and fetch the clothes the Walrus gave us first," suggested Marjorie, wisely, and so they ran off to the rock behind which they had hidden them. [Illustration: "The snowshoes seemed to puzzle them somewhat."] To their great surprise, they found a party of apes and monkeys calmly trying the things on, and apparently enjoying themselves very much indeed. The snowshoes seemed to puzzle them considerably, however, and they were undecided whether to regard them as musical instruments or a novel form of headgear. "Hi! Just you put those clothes down at once!" shouted Dick. "How dare you interfere with our things!" "They're not yours," said one of the monkeys. "Findings keepings. We found them, and so they are ours." "Indeed they are not. Give them back at once!" demanded Dick. "Shan't!" screamed the monkeys, impudently, and, scampering up into the trees beyond the children's reach, they made grimaces at them, and openly defied them. Indeed, one of them went so far as to climb up into a cocoanut palm and began pelting the children with the nuts. Fortunately, none of them reached the mark, however, and the children, hastily gathered one or two of the cocoanuts, abandoned the clothes, which, really, were not of much value to them now, and fled. This little incident had almost driven from their mind the recollection of the vehicle which they had seen in the high-road, but a rumbling sound, as they neared the place where they had last seen it, reminded them of the fact, and they hurried up to the spot from whence the sounds proceeded. [Illustration: "'I shall get very angry in a minute,' said the Dodo."]