<h2 id="c11"><span class="smaller">Chapter 11</span> <br/>The King of The Illumi Nation</h2>
<p>While Ruggedo was working all this mischief in
the Emerald City, Pompadore and the Elegant
Elephant had fallen into strange company. After the
Prince’s disappearance, Kabumpo stared long and
anxiously at the white marble stone with its mysterious
inscription, “Knock before you fall in.”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</div>
<p>What would happen if he knocked, as the sign directed?
Something upsetting, the Elegant Elephant
was sure, else why had Pompa called for help?</p>
<p>Kabumpo groaned, for he was a luxurious beast and
hated discomfort of any sort. As for falling <i>in</i>—the
very thought of it made him shudder in every pound.
But selfish and luxurious though he was, the Elegant
Elephant loved Pompa with all his heart. After all,
he had run off with the Prince and was responsible for
his safety. If Pompa had fallen in he must fall in too.
With a resigned sigh, Kabumpo felt in his pocket to
see that his treasures were safe, straightened his robe
and, taking one last long breath, rapped sharply on
the marble stone with his trunk. Without a sound,
the stone swung inward, and as Kabumpo was standing
on it he shot headlong into a great black opening.
There was a terrific rush of air and the slab swung
back, catching as it did so the fluttering edge of the
Elegant Elephant’s robe of state. This halted his fall
for about a second and then with a spluttering tear
the silk fringe ripped loose and down plunged the
Elegant Elephant, trunk over heels.</p>
<p>After the third somersault, Kabumpo, right side up,
fortunately, struck a soft inclined slide, down which
he shot like a scenic railway train.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</div>
<p>“Great Grump!” coughed Kabumpo, holding his
jeweled headpiece with his trunk. “Great—” Before
he reached the second grump, his head struck the top
of the passage with terrific force, and that was the last
he remembered about his fall. How long he lay in an
unconscious state the Elegant Elephant never knew.
After what seemed several ages he became aware of a
confused murmur. Footsteps seemed to be pattering
all around him, but he was still too stunned to be
curious.</p>
<p>“Nothing will make me get up,” thought Kabumpo
dully. “I’m going to lie here forever and—ever—and
ever—and—” Just as he reached this drowsy conclusion,
something red hot fell down his neck and a
voice louder than all the rest shouted in his ear.
“<i>What are you?</i>”</p>
<p>“Ouch!” screamed Kabumpo, now thoroughly
aroused. He opened one eye and rolled over on his
side. A tall, curious creature was bending over him.
Its head was on fire and as Kabumpo blinked angrily
another red hot shower spattered into his ear. With
a trumpet of rage Kabumpo lunged to his feet. The
hot-headed person fell over backwards and a crowd of
similar creatures pattered off into the corner and
regarded Kabumpo uneasily. They were as tall as
Pompa but very thin and tube-like in shape and their
heads appeared to be a mass of flickering flames.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</div>
<p>“Like giant candles,” reflected the Elegant Elephant,
his curiosity getting the better of his anger.
He glanced about hurriedly. He was in a huge white
tiled chamber and the only lights came from the heads
of its singular occupants. A little distance away
Prince Pompadore sat rubbing first his knees and then
his head.</p>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_154.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="600" height-obs="406" /></div>
<p>“It’s another faller,” said one of the giant Candlemen
to the other. “Two fallers in one day! This is
exciting—an ‘Ouch’ it calls itself!”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</div>
<p>“I don’t care what it calls itself,” answered the second
Candleman crossly. “I call it mighty rude. How
dare you blow out our king?” shouted the hot-headed
fellow, shaking his fist at the Elegant Elephant.
“Here, some of you, light him up!”</p>
<p>“Blow out your King?” gasped Kabumpo in amazement.
Sure enough, he had. There at his feet lay
the King of the Candles, stiff and lifeless and with
never a head to bless himself with. While the Elegant
Elephant stared at the long candlestick figure a fat
little Candleman rushed forward and lit with his own
head the small black wick sticking out of the King’s
collar.</p>
<p>Instantly the ruddy flame face of the King appeared,
his eyes snapping dangerously. Jumping to
his feet he advanced toward Pompadore. “Is this
your Ouch?” spluttered the King, jerking his thumb
at Kabumpo. “You must take him away at once. I
never was so put out in my life. Me, the hand-dipped
King of the whole Illumi Nation, to be blown out by
a bumpy creature without any headlight. Where’s
<i>your</i> headlight?” he demanded fiercely, leaning over
the Prince and dropping hot tallow down his neck.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</div>
<p>Pompa jumped up in a hurry and backed toward
Kabumpo. “Be careful how you talk to him,” roared
the Elegant Elephant, swaying backwards and forward
like a big ship. “He’s a Prince—the Prince of
Pumperdink!” Kabumpo tossed his trunk threateningly.</p>
<p>“A Prince?” spluttered the King, changing his
tone instantly. “Well, that’s different. A Prince can
fall in on us any time and welcome but an Ouch! Why
bring this great clumsy Ouch along?” He rolled his
eyes mournfully at Kabumpo.</p>
<p>“He’s not an Ouch,” explained Pompa, who was
gradually recovering from the shock of his fall. “He
is Kabumpo, an Elegant Elephant, and he blew you
out by mistake. Didn’t you, Kabumpo?”</p>
<p>“Purely an accident—nothing intentional, I assure
you,” chuckled Kabumpo. He was beginning to enjoy
himself. “If there’s any more trouble I’ll blow ’em all
out,” he reflected comfortably, “for they’re nothing
but great big candles.”</p>
<p>Seeing their King in friendly conversation with the
strangers, the other Candlemen came closer—too
close for comfort, in fact. They were always leaning
over and dropping hot tallow on a body and the heat
from their flaming heads was simply suffocating.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</div>
<p>“Sing the National Air for them,” said the Candle
King carelessly and the Candlemen, in their queer
crackling voices, sang the following song, swaying
rhythmically to the tune:</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Flicker, flicker, Candlemen,</p>
<p class="t0">Cheer our King and cheer again!</p>
<p class="t0">Neat as wax and always bright,</p>
<p class="t0">Cheer’s the King of candle light!</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Kindle lightly—dwindle slightly,</p>
<p class="t0">Here we burn both day and nightly,</p>
<p class="t0">Here we have good times to burn</p>
<p class="t0">Till each one goes out in turn.”</p>
</div>
<p>“Thank you,” said Pompa, mopping his head with
his silk handkerchief.</p>
<p>“Thank you very much,” Kabumpo groaned plaintively,
for the great elephant was nearly stifled.</p>
<p>“How is it you are so tall and thin?” asked Pompa
after an awkward pause.</p>
<p>“How is it you are so short and lumpy and unevenly
dipped?” responded King Cheer promptly. “If I
were in your place,” he gave Kabumpo a contemptuous
glance, “I’d have myself redipped. Where are
your wicks? And how can you walk about without
being lighted?”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</div>
<p>“We’re not fireworks,” puffed Kabumpo indignantly
and then he gave a shrill scream. Ten Candlemen
tottered and went out, falling to the ground with
a great clatter. Then Pompa leaped several feet in
the air and his scream put out five more.</p>
<p>“Stop!” cried King Cheer angrily. “Stand where
you are!” But Kabumpo and Pompa neither stopped
nor stood where they were. The Elegant Elephant
rushed over to the Prince and threw his heavy robe
over his head. And just in time, for Pompa’s golden
locks were a mass of flames. Then the Prince tore off
his velvet jacket and clapped it to Kabumpo’s tail,
which also was blazing merrily.</p>
<p>“Great Grump!” rumbled the Elegant Elephant
furiously, when he had extinguished Pompa and
Pompa had extinguished him. “I’ll put you all out
for this!” He raised his trunk and pointed it straight
at the Candlemen, who cowered in the far corner.</p>
<p>“I was only trying to light you up,” wailed a little
fellow, holding out his hands pleadingly. “I thought
that was your wick.” He pointed a trembling finger
at Kabumpo’s tail and another at Pompa’s head.</p>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_159.jpg" alt="“I was only trying to light you up,” wailed the Candleman" width-obs="590" height-obs="800" /> <p class="caption"><span class="sc">“I was only trying to light you up,” wailed the Candleman</span></p> </div>
<p>“Wick!” snorted Kabumpo in a rage—while the
Prince ran his hand sorrowfully through his one luxuriant
pompadour, of which nothing but a short stubble
remained—“Wick! What would we be doing
with wicks?”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</div>
<p>“I don’t think he meant any harm,” put in Pompadore,
whose kind heart was touched by the little Candleman’s
terror. “And it wouldn’t help us any.”</p>
<p>“Thought it was my Wick,” shrilled Kabumpo, glaring
over his shoulder at his poor scorched tail. “He’s
a wick-ed little wretch. He’s ruined your looks.”</p>
<p>“I know!” Pompa sighed dismally. “No one will
want to marry me now. It’s all coming true, Kabumpo,
just as Count It Up said. Remember? ‘If a
thin Prince sets out on a fat elephant to find a Proper
Princess, how many yards of fringe will the elephant
lose from his robe and how bald will the Prince be at
the end of the journey?’ And we’ve scarcely begun!”</p>
<p>“Great hay stacks!” whistled Kabumpo, his little
eyes twinkling. “So I have lost every bit of fringe
from my robe and my tail and half the back of my
robe besides. This is nice, I must say.”</p>
<p>“We only tried to give you a warm welcome,” said
the King timidly.</p>
<p>“Warm welcome! Well I should think you did,”
sniffed Kabumpo. “How do we get out of here?”</p>
<p>“Oh, that’s very simple,” said the King, cheering
up. “Tommy, go for the Snuffer.”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</div>
<p>Before Kabumpo or Pompa realized what this would
mean a little Candleman named Tommy Tallow had
returned with a tall black candle person. He stepped
to the side wall, quickly jerked a rope and down over
Kabumpo dropped a great brass snuffer and over the
Prince another.</p>
<p>“That ought to put the cross old things out,”
Pompa heard the King say just before his snuffer
reached the floor.</p>
<p>“This is terrible,” fumed the poor Prince, thumping
on the sides of the huge brass dome. “I might as
well have stayed at home and disappeared comfortably.
My poor old father and my mother! I wonder
where they are now?”</p>
<p>Sunk in gloomy reflection, Pompadore leaned
against the side of the snuffer. And one cannot blame
him for feeling dismal. The fall down the deep passage,
the shock of losing his hair and now imprisonment
under a stifling brass dome were enough to extinguish
the hopes of the stoutest hearted adventurer.</p>
<p>“I shall never find a Proper Princess!” wailed
Pompa, tying and untying his handkerchief. But
just then there was a creak from without and the great
dome lifted as suddenly as it had fallen—so suddenly
in fact that Pompa fell flat on his back. There stood
Kabumpo winding up the long rope with his trunk
and grumbling furiously all the while.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</div>
<p>“Takes more than a snuffer to keep me down,”
wheezed the Elegant Elephant, hurrying over and
jerking the Prince to his feet. “Three humps of my
shoulders and off she goes! What makes it so dark?”</p>
<p>“The Candlemen have all gone,” sighed Pompa,
brushing his hand wearily across his forehead. “All
except that one.”</p>
<p>In a distant corner sat Tommy Tallow and the light
from his head was the only light in the great chamber.
He was reading a book with tin leaves and looked up
in surprise when he saw the Elegant Elephant and
Pompadore approaching. Then he started to sputter
and ran toward a bell rope at the side of the chamber.</p>
<p>“Stop!” shouted Kabumpo, “or I’ll blow off your
head!” At that the little Candleman trembled so
violently that his flame head almost went out.</p>
<p>“Now suppose you show us the way out,” snapped
the Elegant Elephant, stamping one big foot until the
floor trembled.</p>
<p>“You could burn out!” gasped Tommy faintly.
“That’s what we do!”</p>
<p>“Don’t say out,” whispered Pompa anxiously. “We
want to go away from here,” he explained earnestly.
“Back on the top of the ground, you know.”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</div>
<p>“Oh!” whistled Tommy Tallow, his face lighting
up. “That’s easy—this way, please!” He almost ran
to a big door at one side of the room and tugging it
open, waved them through.</p>
<p>“Good-bye!” he called, slamming the door quickly
behind them.</p>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_164.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="600" height-obs="425" /></div>
<p>Kabumpo and the Prince found themselves in a
wide dim hallway. It slanted up gradually and there
were tall candle guards stationed about a hundred
yards apart all of the way.</p>
<p>“Are you going to a birthday party or a wedding?”
asked the first guard, as they passed him.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</div>
<p>“Wedding,” sniffed Kabumpo. “Why?”</p>
<p>“Well, hardly any of the candles go out of here unless
they’re needed for a birthday or a wedding,”
explained the guard, shifting his big feet. “You’re
mighty poorly made though. What kind of candles do
you call yourselves?”</p>
<p>“Roman,” chuckled Kabumpo with a wink. “We
roam around,” he added ponderously.</p>
<p>“Do all the candles used above ground come from
here?” asked Pompa curiously.</p>
<p>“Certainly,” replied the guard. “All candles come
from Illumi—and they don’t like to leave either because
as soon as they strike the upper air they shrink
down to ordinary cake and candlestick size. Distressing,
isn’t it?”</p>
<p>“I suppose it must be,” smiled Pompadore. “Good-bye!”
The guard touched his flame hat and Kabumpo
quickened his pace.</p>
<p>“I want air,” rumbled the great elephant, panting
along as fast as he could go. “I’ve seen and felt about
all I care to see and feel of the Illumi Nation.”</p>
<p>“So have I!” The Prince of Pumperdink touched
his scorched locks and sighed deeply. “I’m afraid
Ozma will never marry me now, and Pumperdink will
disappear forever!”</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</div>
<p>“Don’t be a Gooch!” snapped the Elegant Elephant
shortly. “Our adventures have only begun.”</p>
<p>They passed the rest of the guards without further
conversation, and after about two hours came to the
end of the long tiled passageway and stepped upon
firm ground again.</p>
<p>Kabumpo was terribly out of breath, for the whole
way had been up hill. For a full minute he stood
sniffing the fresh night air. Then, turning around, he
looked for the opening through which they had come.
Not a sign of the passage anywhere!</p>
<p>“That’s curious,” puffed the Elegant Elephant.
“But never mind. We don’t want to go back anyway.”</p>
<p>“I should say not,” gasped the Prince wearily.
“Where are we now, Kabumpo?”</p>
<p>“Still in the Gilliken country, I think, but headed
in the right direction. All we have to do is to keep
going South,” said the Elegant Elephant cheerfully.</p>
<p>“But we’ve had nothing to eat since morning,” objected
Pompadore.</p>
<p>“That’s so,” agreed Kabumpo, scratching his head
thoughtfully, “and not a house in sight!”</p>
<p>“But I smell something cooking,” insisted the
Prince, sniffing hungrily.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</div>
<p>“So do I,” said the Elegant Elephant, lifting his
trunk, “and it smells like soup. Let’s follow our noses,
Pompa, my boy.”</p>
<p>“Yours is the longest,” laughed the Prince, as Kabumpo
swung him upon the elephant’s back. So,
guided by the fragrant whiffs that came floating
toward them, Kabumpo set out through the trees.</p>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_167.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="600" height-obs="397" /></div>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_168.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="500" height-obs="502" /></div>
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