Read Ebook: Captain Salt in Oz by Thompson Ruth Plumly Martin Dick Illustrator Neill John R John Rea Illustrator Baum L Frank Lyman Frank Other

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Ebook has 407 lines and 32589 words, and 9 pages

"In-feer-iors!" screamed Roger, forgetting all his good intentions and mad enough to nip the youngster's nose right off. "Are you by any chance referring to me?"

"Ozamaland is a great and powerful country and I am its King," stated Tandy, turning his back on the Read Bird. At this Roger let out another screech, and then suddenly remembering the purpose of his visit, took a long breath to steady himself. When he spoke again his voice was both calm and reasonable.

"Ozamaland may be a great and powerful country and you may also be its King, but remember you are no longer in Ozamaland," explained Roger firmly. "You are on this ship by the express wish and kindness of the Captain and in the company of Kings and BETTER. WAIT!" Shaking a claw at Tandy's back, Roger flew off to fetch one of Ato's books from the shelf above the stove. Tandy was in the same position when he returned, but paying him no further attention, Roger pulled the lamp nearer and opened his volume.

"When a King is in the company of Kings," began the Read Bird impressively, "he is no longer a special or royal being, but merely a man among men, and as such must maintain his honor and standing by sheer worth and ability alone."

"Who says that? What are you reading?" Tandy sat up with sudden interest, for his whole life had been spent in study and reflection and the voice of the Read Bird was not unlike the voice of Woodjabegoodja, his royal instructor at home.

"Pooh, Ozamaland!" Roger dismissed the whole country with a shrug of his wing. "A country as young and unimportant as that would probably know nothing about such matters."

"You mean my country is not so old nor important as Oz and this two-penny island of your fat Master?" shouted Tandy angrily.

"Of course not. Why, it's not even been discovered, and whoever has been there?" demanded Roger disdainfully. "Take you, as its King, acting in this small up-country fashion--what CAN a fellow think? Here--" Shoving the book toward the disagreeable young monarch, the Read Bird urged him to look for himself. With a puzzled frown Tandy reread the passage Roger had just quoted.

"Well, even though your Master is a King, you're not a King and neither is Samuel Salt," said Tandy, looking at Roger with some of his former arrogance.

"Then while I'm on this ship I'm not a King at all," said Tandy wonderingly. "Then what am I? What am I supposed to do?" The little boy looked puzzled and positively frightened.

"Why, you're supposed to act like a person, that is, if possible," sniffed Roger, reaching over for his book and looking at Tandy sideways down his bill. "What are you besides a King? What can you do that is useful or interesting?"

"Do, DO?" Tandy's voice rose shrilly. "Why--er--why, I can draw pictures and ride an elephant."

"Good!" Roger put up his claw to hide the grin that, in spite of his best efforts, began to spread round his bill. "Well, there isn't much call for drawing or elephant riding on a ship, but you can draw water to swab the decks and I'll teach you to ride the yards and follow the crosstrees to the main topgallant mast in the blowingest blow that ever blowed. And depend upon it, young one, you'll have more fun as a person than you ever had as a King. There's no place for having fun like a ship!"

"Fun!" said Tandy flatly and inquiringly. "What's that?"

"Tar and tobaccy jack! What are you tellin' me?" Roger almost toppled off the sea chest. "Do you mean to sit there like a dumb image and tell me you've never had any fun? Never felt so bursting full of ginger and happiness you could sing or do a sailor's horn pipe?"

"It is not seemly--" began the boy in a staid voice. "It is--"

"Seemly! Great goosefeathers, are you alive or aren't you?" gasped Roger. "What in paint did you do in that cussed country of yours before you got carried off and penned up like a pig in the jungle?"

Considering Roger's question, Tandy clasped and unclasped his hands nervously. "Well, you must know," he began in a very grown-up voice, "the King of Ozamaland is not allowed to mingle with the common people. In all things he is alone and set apart. So it was with my father and mother before they disappeared. So it is with me. Furthermore, it being prophesied that I would be carried off by an aunt in the middle years of my youth, it was deemed expedient and necessary to keep me locked away from danger in the White Tower of the Wise Men."

"Hurumph!" grunted the Read Bird, who had not heard so many long words since the voyage began. "And what did you do in this precious tower?"

"I studied," sighed Tandy, reclining wearily back on his pillows, "for there are many things a King must learn. But one hour of every evening I was permitted to walk about the garden on top of the tower and look down upon my Kingdom. On very great occasions I was allowed to come out and ride the white elephant in the grand processions of state."

"Humph!" grunted Roger again, looking at Tandy with round dismayed eyes. "And with whom did you play?" he asked after a little silence.

"Play?" Again Tandy's voice was politely inquiring.

Tandy looked confused and Roger shook his head sorrowfully. "Never heard of such things!" he exclaimed indignantly. "Well, all I can say is, whoever carried you off and shut you up in that jungle cage did you a real service. If you had not been there we never would have found you and I'm here to tell you that from now on things are going to be different. You're discovered now and aboard the grandest ship afloat. You can forget all about being a King and start right in being a person and an able-bodied seaman. I for my part mean to see you have some fun or break a wing in the attempt."

"But would a King--"

"King! Never let me hear that terrible word again," shuddered Roger, sticking his head under his wing and then popping it comically out again. "From now on, you're plain Tandy and can do as you plain please so long as it does no harm to yourself or the ship. Understand? And tomorrow we'll start having fun, so be ready." Roger's promise sounded almost like a threat, but there was such a merry twinkle in his eye, Tandy began to feel interested. "You might even begin tonight," sniffed Roger, taking up the tray. "Just begin by thinking of something you want to do. Think about it hard and then DO it." Winking cheerfully over the empty plates, the Read Bird spread his wings and sailed through the port.

For several minutes Tandy lay where he was, turning Roger's last injunction over and over in his stiff, precise little mind. What DID he really want to do? At first he could think of nothing. Then suddenly he knew. Why, of course--he wanted to talk to Kobo and he just plain WOULD. There was a frosted cake left from his supper, and slipping it into his blouse, Tandy stepped quietly out on deck. The ship, with only a slight roll, was moving briskly through the water, white foam falling in lacy spray from her sides, the moon-white sails spread like giant wings above his head. There was no one in sight, and almost holding his breath, Tandy tiptoed aft and leaned adventurously over the taffrail.

"Kobo--Yo KOBO!" he called huskily.

"Hello! I thought you'd be out soon." Swinging round and turning her vast smile upward, the hippopotamus gazed fondly at her young charge. "Are you comfortable? Did you have a good dinner?" she asked anxiously.

"Yes, and look what I saved for you!" As he spoke, Tandy glanced over his shoulder as if he were almost afraid to have anyone see him enjoying himself. "Open your mouth, Kobo!" he whispered eagerly. Without hesitation or question the hippopotamus stretched her jaws wide and Tandy with the first real thrill of his life flung the frosted cake into that immense pink cavern. As Kobo neatly caught and snapped her lips on the tempting morsel Tandy let out a faint cheer and began to think there might be something in Roger's suggestions after all. "I'll throw you lots of things tomorrow," he promised gaily. "Good night, Kobo. Good night, Kobo dear."

Humming a tuneless little song, the young King hurried almost cheerfully back to his cabin. Pausing in the doorway of his tidy quarters, he looked about complacently. What did he want to do next? There was no one to tell him to go to bed, so he just plain wouldn't. He'd sit up as late as he plain pleased. Rummaging through Peter's sea chest, which Ato had placed near his bunk, Tandy found a large tablet of stiff paper, a box of paints and some crayons. Settling himself cross-legged on his bunk, he began drawing, not pictures of the castles and courtiers of Ozamaland, but pictures of the queer jungle beasts and Leopard Men he had seen on Patrippany Island.

When Roger, on first watch, called out eight bells, he saw Tandy's light still burning, and flying down to investigate, found his new pupil fast asleep in the middle of his masterpieces. The whole bunk was covered with bright drawings and pictures and even to Roger's inexperienced eye they seemed excellently done. So, carefully the Read Bird stowed them in the sea chest, then, without bothering to waken or undress the little King, he covered him with a light blanket and went quietly from the cabin.

Sea Legs for Tandy

"If what Roger tells us is so, little Sauce Box yonder has had a pretty dull life," said Ato as he and the Captain sat finishing their breakfast next morning. "Lucky for him we happened along and anyway, the hippopotamus will be good company, eh, Samuel? She seems downright sensible and jolly. Reminds me of Pigasus and I suppose she does belong to the pig family when you come to think of it."

"Well, she's a pretty big pig if she does," laughed Samuel Salt, swallowing his coffee with gusty relish. "Pretty big any way you take her. Personally, I like the animal, but the King and son of a King's son! PAH! Reminds me of Peter, he's so different, and the sooner we reach Ozamaland and set him ashore, the better. Meals in his own cabin. Hoh!"

"Oh, give him time," drawled Ato, helping himself a second time to fried potatoes. "If there's any good in the lad, a sea voyage will bring it out, and what chance has he had shut up in a tower for ten years and in a cage for five months? Though how an aunt managed to have him carried so far and why she left him with those savages in the jungle I can't get through my head at all."

"Maybe it was a gi-ant," whistled Roger, swooping down on Ato's plump shoulder and flapping his wings cheerfully. "How far do you figure it is to Ozamaland, Master Salt?"

"Well, that I couldn't just say," answered Samuel in a milder voice. Pushing back his chair, he stepped over to the map on the west wall. "Maybe a thousand leagues or so from Patrippany Island, maybe more, in a line east by sou'east from Ev. If that is so, we're bound to bump into it sometime, as I've set my course east by sou'east, and anyway it's all in the year's sailing." Samuel bent over with pride to examine the newest island discovery he had marked on the chart the evening before. "And when we do come to it," he announced firmly, "we'll trade this useless young one for some of those flying snakes and creeping birds, eh, Mates?"

"Tiptopsails!" grinned Samuel. "She eats nothing but hot air and water and is no more trouble than a hair in a flea's whisker. I can carry her round in my pipe when I want company. Now there's a lass for you!"

"Well, I'll just see to Nikobo, for she's the girl for me," retorted Ato, rolling briskly out of his seat. "I saved all the potato peelings from last night, and that, with a dozen cans of peas, corn, carrots and beets, should stay her appetite till lunch time."

"Forty cans at one swallow," groaned Roger, clapping a claw to his head in mock dismay. "She'll eat us out of ship and home at this rate. Can't you think of something else, King dear? A nice wind pudding or a tub of sea soup sprinkled with faggots."

"Oh, go along with you," roared Ato, and picking up his precious coffee pot, he waddled cheerfully off to his storeroom.

"That's it! That's it! Now you're catching on," approved the Read Bird, hopping cheerfully from one foot to the other. "Now match your step to the sea's roll, sonny, get into her rhythm. You've got to breathe with the ship to carry your rations on a voyage. Watch the Captain, there, and do as he does," finished Roger as Samuel Salt left his cabin and came striding aft.

"Rather watch you!" exclaimed Tandy, who sensed the Captain's dislike. Uneasily he moved a little nearer the Read Bird.

"All right, come on then!" shouted Roger, heading recklessly for the foremast. "Ever climb a tree?" Tandy shook his head, looking with deep misgiving into the maze of sail and rigging above. But Roger was already aloft and beckoning for him to follow. "Not that way, Brainless!" scolded Roger anxiously as Tandy, gritting his teeth, made a desperate leap upward. "See those rope ladders by the rail? Put your feet in the ratlins, boy, and come along hand over hand. It's easy as flying once you get the swing of it. There, that's better! Come on! Come on! Don't stop! Don't look down." So up--up and up the narrow rope ladders toiled Tandy, till Roger, growing impatient, seized his collar and helped him straddle the crosstree of the fore t'gallant mast. "Ahoy! And isn't this better than riding an elephant?" beamed Roger, winking a knowing eye. "Ahoy, this is fun and NO fooling." Seeing Tandy was too dizzy and breathless to talk for a moment, Roger cheerfully set himself to teach the young Ozamander a bit about ships and sailing. Soon Tandy was so interested he forgot the leap and plunge of the ship, the rattle and creak of the cordage and his own precarious perch in the foremast.

"Then tell me why is the water on the port side bluer than the water on the starboard?" asked Tandy, who had been listening very solemnly as he tried to fix all of these strange sea terms in his head.

"M--mm!" Roger sniffed suddenly. "Wonder what Ato's cooking? Smells like taffy. I'll bet a ship's biscuit we're going to have a candy pull."

"A candy pull!" exclaimed Tandy, taking a furious sniff himself. "What is that?" As Roger started in to explain about candy pulls, a large green column shot up on the skyline, a column so surprising and shocking in appearance Tandy felt positively stunned.

"Oh, look! LOOK!" he screamed, grabbing Roger's wing. "There's something now. Oh, Roger, what fun! What terrible fun!"

"Fun?" Roger spun round like a weather cock in a gale. "Fun?" he repeated, stretching out his neck as far as it would go and a few inches besides. "Oh, my best bill and feathers. That's not fun--that's a SEA-Serpent. Help! Help! Deck ahoy! 'Hoy! 'Hoy! Below! King! Captain! Ato! SAMMY! SAMU-EL!" As if calling them not only by their titles but by their names would increase the number of the ship's officers and crew, Roger tugged wildly at Tandy's arm. "Below! Below! All hands below," shrilled the Read Bird. "Cover all ports and batten the hatches!"

Urged on by Roger, Tandy, still more interested than frightened, descended rapidly to the main deck. At Roger's cries, Ato had run out with a pan of bubbling molasses in one hand and his trusty bread knife in the other. Right behind him stood Samuel Salt, his eye pressed to his largest spyglass.

"Well, tar and tarry barrels!" exclaimed the Captain exultantly. "Why, this is a sea serpent second to none, the finest example of a marine ophidian I've ever met in all my voyages!"

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