"Hist! hist!" interrupted a voice, and the Dodo, with a very scared face, peeped from behind a tree. "Who _do_ you think is here?" he gasped. "Who?" inquired the others, curiously. "The Little Panjandrum himself," declared the Dodo. "I have just caught sight of him up by the Palace, and he looks _so_ angry about something." CHAPTER XXI. THE LITTLE PANJANDRUM AT LAST. "The Little Panjandrum!" exclaimed Marjorie, "I _shall_ be glad to see him at last. What is he like?" "Oh! don't bother me about him," cried the Dodo, impatiently; "he's all right as Panjandrums go, I suppose, but I don't want to get into his clutches again, I can tell you." "Don't you, indeed?" remarked a voice, sarcastically. "Well, His Importance is particularly anxious to see _you_ again, anyhow." The Dodo gasped, and the children turning around beheld the Little Panjandrum's Ambassador. "Hullo! you here, too?" he continued, when he recognized them. "Well, I must say, you have been long enough bringing this wretched bird along." "I think you ought to be very grateful to us for having done so at all," said Dick, boldly. "What are you going to do with him now you have got him?" "H'm! that remains to be seen," said the Ambassador, pursing his lips up tightly, and staring at the Dodo severely. [Illustration: "'Come along,' said the Ambassador."] "Come along," he continued, catching hold of what would have been the Dodo's ear if he had had one, but which was in reality a sort of woolly fluff growing all over his head. "Come along, and see your friend the Little Panjandrum." "Leave go!" screamed the Dodo, "you hurt." "Rubbish!" exclaimed the Ambassador, dragging him along, "it doesn't hurt _me_!" "Oh! oh! I've dropped one of my gloves," cried the Dodo, pathetically. "If you take my advice, you'll throw the other one away, too," said the Ambassador; "it will only make the Little Panjandrum more angry than ever to see them." "They make me look so respectable," whispered the Dodo. "Respectable!" said the Ambassador, contemptuously; "nothing would make _you_ respectable--you ridiculous object, you." "I think you are most un--un--ki--ki--kind," sobbed the Dodo, "you are always pi--pi--pi--pitching into m--me, and ca--ca--calling me n--n--nasty names. It--it--it's too bad." "Oh, stop that noise," said the Ambassador, giving the Dodo's wool a twist; "I'm ashamed of you. Ah, here comes His Importance," he continued, as the sound of a drum was heard in the distance. The children all eagerness to see the Little Panjandrum, stood in a line by the side of the pathway, while the Ambassador, keeping a firm hold on the Dodo, remained by their side. The sound of the drum drew nearer, and the children could distinguish another sound mingling with it. The Ambassador smiled blandly, while he kept time with his foot.