CHAPTER VIII.--OH AH, THE MAGICIAN.
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HE greatest consternation followed this announcement, and the Lord HighAdjudicator in particular looked greatly alarmed.
"Wh--wh--what do you want?" he stammered nervously.
"I think I have the pleasure of addressing His Importance the Lord HighAdjudicator, have I not?" replied Ohah. "I scarcely recognised you inthat--ahem--that costume," he added, smiling sarcastically.
"Oh, I wear it for the sake of coolness," said the Lord HighAdjudicator, hastily his bib, which was somewhat disordered, been havingvery warm weather lately.
"Oh! really!" said Ohah. "And I suppose you play leapfrog and blindman's buff for the sake of coolness too, eh? I should have thought thatat your time of life you had given up such frivolities."
"It was His Majesty's fault," said the Lord High Adjudicator sheepishly;"he _would_ have a parliament of children, and so we were obliged todress like this and play games, or we should have lost our positions."
"H'm! doesn't it strike you as being rather foolish to have a King soyoung as your present one?" inquired Ohah.
"Well, it certainly has its disadvantages," admitted the Lord HighAdjudicator; "but what are we to do? He is the lawful successor to thethrone, you know."
"Well, I could soon help you out of that difficulty if you wished," saidthe Magician, a cunning look creeping over his face.
"What do you mean?" asked the Lord High Adjudicator.
"I could make him invisible, you know, like the Prince and Princess, andthen you could govern the country yourselves," suggested Ohah.
"Oh, but that wouldn't be right, surely," said the Lord HighAdjudicator.
"Oh, I don't know," chimed in the Busybody Extraordinary; "we sha'n'tbe able to manage very well with a King like this, and if there wasno legal successor to the throne we could have a general election, youknow, and choose a King for ourselves."
"Does it hurt much to be made invisible?" asked the Lord HighAdjudicator thoughtfully.
"Not a bit," exclaimed Ohah; "it's rather a pleasant sensation thanotherwise."
"And how long would he have to remain in that state?" inquired the LordHigh Adjudicator.
"Oh! till the Portmanteau is found," was the reply.
"The Portmanteau!" exclaimed the Lord High Adjudicator; "why, that willnever be found, you know; we had every house in Zum searched for ityears ago."
"It must be here somewhere, and when it is found I am instructed by theKing of Limesia to make your Crown Prince and his bride visible again;but in the meantime you had better let me make the little King invisibletoo, for you can't possibly go on as you are."
"What do you think about it?" asked the Lord High Adjudicator of theothers.
"Well, I don't think it's at all a bad plan, do you know," replied theAdvertiser General. "I can see that we shall have rather a hard time ofit if His present Majesty continues to reign; and if it wouldn't hurthim at all--"
"Not in the least," interrupted Ohah.
"I don't see why we shouldn't agree to it."
"That's right! and now, when shall I perform the operation?" said Ohahin a business-like way.
"Oh, the sooner the quicker," replied the Advertiser General. "What doyou say to to-morrow morning?"
"Yes, that will suit me nicely," was the answer; and so it was arrangedthat the poor little King should be rendered invisible the next day; butBoy, who had been listening eagerly to all that had been going on, madeup his mind that he would do what he could to prevent it, so callingOne-and-Nine, he hurried to the Palace, and sent a message to the RoyalNurse to say that he must have an interview with her immediately.
Mrs. Martha Matilda Nimpky received him in her own apartments, andlistened intently to all that he had to say.
"The wretches!" she exclaimed. "And that old villain Ohah! Of course hehas been sent by that horrible King of Limesia; who directly he has gotrid of this poor little fellow will come here and seize the throne forhimself: I can see through his little tricks and manners."
"But what's to be done?" cried Boy excitedly. "We must do somethingto prevent it. I know," he exclaimed after thinking for a moment,"Professor Crab, of course. You could go and stay at his house with HisMajesty till we could find another place for him. Ohah wouldn't think oflooking there, I am sure."
"Where is Professor Crab's?" inquired the Royal Nurse. "DrinkonCollege," replied Boy. "You go by the Submarine Navigation Company'sSteamers, you know, and I will get One-and-Nine to escort you to theCollege, while I stop here and see what goes on in your absence."
"Do you mean that Soldier friend of yours?" inquired Mrs. Martha MatildaNimpky, blushing bashfully. "He seems to be a very nice gentleman."
"Yes, he is," replied Boy, "and he will be delighted, I am sure, to actas your escort, for he admires you very much indeed."
"Does he really?" said Mrs. Martha Matilda Nimpky, giggling and shakingher curls coquettishly. "How nice!"
"I don't think there's any time to lose," said Boy; "you go and prepareHis Majesty, and I will go with you to the Station."
A very few moments later they all met in the garden, and after Boy hadformally introduced One-and-Nine to Mrs. Martha Matilda Nimpky, theyleft the Palace grounds by a small private gate, and after one or twoinquiries found themselves at the Quay. Fortunately there was a boatstarting soon, and so they were off, and Boy was back again to thePalace before any one had missed them. He had barely, however, reachedhis apartments in the Palace when Caesar Maximilian Augustus ClaudiusSmith (called Thomas for short) brought him a card on which Boy read:
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"Dear me, I wonder what he wants to see me for?" he thought as he waitedfor the Magician to enter.
"I thought you'd like to see some tricks," said this gentleman as hecame in, "and it will be good practice for me for my important workto-morrow. Now is there anything that you'd like to be turned into?"
"Oh no, thank you," cried Boy, greatly alarmed, "I'm quite content to bemyself."
"H'm! you are an exception to the general rule then. However, you _must_be changed to something or other, for I want to have some practice. Whatdo you say to being a hen?" and the Magician stretched out his hands andmade a few mysterious passes, muttering some strange words the while.
Boy was just going to cry, "Oh! please no," when he found to his greatdismay that he could not speak, and the only noise which he could makesounded like "tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk ka-r-a-a-ka, tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk ka-ra-a-ka,"and when he looked down at his feet he found claws there instead, andfeathers on his body; in fact, he was completely transformed. He triedto scream, but "tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-ka-r-a-a-ka" was the result and Ohahwas holding his sides with laughter while Boy ran and flew franticallyabout the room, making this strange noise and clumsily knocking his beakagainst the furniture on all sides, till presently he managed to getunder a chair at the further end of the room and miserably wondered whatwould happen next.
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Caesar Maximilian Augustus Claudius Smith (called Thomas for short)hearing the noise rushed into the room, and made matters worse by tryingto drive the poor bewildered hen out.
"Shoo-shoo," he cried, kicking under the chair, and Boyflew out again and ran round and round the room calling out"tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-ka-ra-a-ka," "tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk ka-ra-a-a-ka" as loudlyas he could till presently Ohah (who had been laughing the whole time)made some further passes with his hand and muttered some more words,and Caesar Maximilian Augustus Claudius Smith (called Thomas for short)changed at once into a little dog.
"Bow-wow-wow, yap-yap," he barked, rushing at Boy; and then the oldchase began all over again, till at last by a great effort Boy flew upon to the bookcase out of his reach. He felt very hot and tired, andforgetting that he was a hen, began fumbling about for his handkerchief,and in doing so nearly lost his balance and fell off his uncomfortableperch. He felt greatly relieved when Ohah transformed Caesar MaximilianAugustus Claudius Smith (called Thomas for short) back to himself again,and as soon as he
had done so Boy flew down on to the floor; and it wasas well that he did, for with a wave of his wand (which he carriedup his sleeve) the Magician just then turned the bookcase into a bighumming-top and afterwards into a pair of steps, and then, apparentlysatisfied that his powers as a Magician were in good working order, hesuddenly restored Boy and the bookcase to their original forms again.
"Oh," cried Boy with a sigh of relief when he found that he was himselfonce more, "that's very interesting, sir, but please don't do it again."
"Why not?" laughed Ohah. "It's as simple as A.B.C.; there is no danger."
"Can you change yourself into things too?" inquired Boy.
"Yes!" said Ohah. "Would you like to see me? What shall I be?"
"Oh, something small, please. I should be terribly frightened if youwere to turn into a lion or bear, you see."
"All right," said Ohah, "I'll be a Kottle."
"What's that?" cried Boy.
"Oh, a thing all _gribbins_ and _bones_," explained Ohah. "Now watch,"and he waved his wand about his head two or three times, and thendisappeared.
Boy watched intently, for he wanted very much to find out what a Kottlewas; nothing appeared, though, except one or two oddly-shaped scrapsof paper, which Boy picked up and tried to fit together, for there wassomething written on the back of them; at last he was able to make outthe following words:--"_I have forgotten how to change myself back froma Kottle again. Goodbye for ever, Ohah._"
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"There!" exclaimed Boy. "Well, I must say I'm not very sorry, for hemust have been a most dangerous person to have about. I _should_ haveliked to have found out what a Kottle was, though."
But he never did, and I may mention here that at Zum to this day theyhave a habit of saying about anything that they don't understand, "Oh,it must be a Kottle."
When Boy found that there was no chance of Ohah reappearing, he wonderedif he ought to send for the young King and the Royal Nurse to come backagain, but finally decided that in the present unsettled state of publicopinion it would be safer to wait a little while and see what happened;because if the Lord High Adjudicator and the other Statesmen weretreacherous enough to hand the little King over to the tender mercies ofOhah, Boy felt that he was not at all safe in their hands.
Shortly after this it was discovered that the King and the Royal Nursewere missing, and the Lord High Adjudicator and the others flocked tothe Palace to find out if it were true.
Caesar Maximilian Augustus Claudius Smith (called Thomas for short)explained what had happened to himself; and it was at once decided thatOhah must have made the little King invisible rather sooner than he hadintended, and they all went back to the House of Words to talk over thesituation.
"Of course we must have a general election at once," said the Lord HighAdjudicator when they had all settled down into their places, "to decidewho is to be made King."
"I am still willing to accept the post, if you like," suggested theKitchen Poker in Waiting disinterestedly.
"It will save the trouble of an election, you know; and I don't wish toboast, but I am quite sure that you could not possibly select anybodynearly so suitable for the position as myself. Handsome, accomplishedand modest to a degree, I----"
"Here, here, that's quite enough of that," interrupted the AdvertiserGeneral. "We have decided to elect a King by vote, and there's an end ofthe matter. I will go and have some posters printed and stuck about allover the town, and we'll soon have this matter put right. I shouldn't beat all surprised if I were elected myself. I'm a very popular man, youknow."
"H'm!" sneered the Lord High Adjudicator, "I don't think you will standmuch chance if I put up for the post, as I certainly intend to do."
"Well, don't let's waste time wrangling," suggested the BusybodyExtraordinary; "let's decide when the election is to take place."
"Oh, to-morrow, of course," was the cry; "the sooner the better."
So a notice was drawn up as follows, and the Advertiser General wasinstructed to have it printed and posted on all the walls some time thatnight, however late it might be.
NOTICE!
|Wereas His Majesty, King Robert the Twenty-first, has mysteriouslydisappeared and there is no successor to the throne, an
```ELECTION
````OF A
```SUITABLE KING
will take place to-morrow at the House of Words. Each person to have onevote. Polling papers can be had of the Town Clerk and must be filledup and returned by two o'clock in the afternoon, when the Poll will beclosed.
``By Order,
```JOSHUA DOBBS,
````Lord High Adjudicator.
And as soon as this business was concluded the meeting broke up, andevery one hurried away to try and secure votes for himself.
The news spread like wild fire, and as he went back to the Palace, Boycould see excited groups of people, and even animals, discussing thematter, and on opening his window when he reached his apartments hedisturbed a large black cat who had just finished writing a placard onwhich Boy could discern the words:--
VOTE
FOR
MR. THOMAS CAT,
A SICK WIFE AND SEVEN SMALL KITTENS.
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Boy shut the window and went to bed.