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island.
"The best little wizard as ever wizzed," Waddy
assured her gravely. "Come along, my boy. Let's
show Dorothy and the famous Wizard of Oz some of
our latest tricks and contrivances, and perhaps he
will show us some of his own magic experiments."
Waddy, having gained his point, felt very generous
toward Ozma's chief magician.
"But first we must find Terrybubble," cried Speedy,
striding toward the cave where Loxo had imprisoned
the dinosaur.
"I'll help you," volunteered the Wizard of Oz, and
as Waddy made no objection, he took a magic rod
from his black bag and waved the rock away from
the opening in the cave, and out sprang Terrybubble,
looking like some strange nightmare to the visitors
from the Emerald City.
"A hat rack," shuddered the Scarecrow. "A hat
rack and ruin. Does he bite and devour one?"
"Certainly not," said Speedy, running up the long
ladder-like tail and back bone of the dinosaur and
patting him affectionately on the skull. "Terry-
bubble's as gentle and harmless as you are!" And
now, what a hub-bub of introductions and explana-
tions, as Gureeda and Terrybubble met the celebri-
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ties from Oz. During the general excitement and
rejoicing Loxo took himself off and nobody even
noticed his departure.
At Sizzeroo's earnest invitation, they all climbed
aboard Umbrella Island, Terrybubble scorning the
ladder and jumping aboard in a dythrambic leap that
caused the Scarecrow to regard him with profound
wonder and admiration.
As the Island billowed smoothly and rhythmically
back toward the Emerald City, a great feast was
prepared in honor of the distinguished guests - a
feast that lasted five hours and eight hundred miles
and had more kinds of cake and ices than even a
royal wedding. Sizzeroo was so happy over the re-
turn of his daughter and Speedy, and the unexpected
graciousness of Ozma of Oz that all unpleasantness
was forgotten. Even Kachewka was dragged down
from his tower room and after being gently reprived
was completely forgiven and placed in his old seat at
the royal board.
Speedy, looking down that long sparkling table at
his old friends from Oz and his new friends among
the Umbrellians, then toward the door where Terry-
bubble, wearing a fresh wreath of roses, stood ob-
serving them with insatiable interest and curiosity,
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felt a twinge of sadness.
Why must all his thrilling adventures and friend-
ships end? Might it not be better to spend the re-
mainder of his days on Umbrella Island than to re-
turn to his more or less humdrum existence in Amer-
ica? But even as the dazzling idea flitted through
his mind, the thought of Uncle Billy, anxious, alone
and grief stricken, quickly put such a plan out of his
head. Besides, there was the water gun! Should an
important invention like that be left to the foolish
uses of a Fairy Island Sea King? No, no, a thousand
times no! It was his duty to return and help Uncle
Billy perfect this powerful weapon for Uncle Sam.
Terrybubble, he decided reluctantly, must stay
where he was to spend long lazy afternoons in the
jungle and long happy mornings with Pansy and
Gureeda. Professor Sanderson would have to look
elsewhere for a prehistoric monster, and some day-
Speedy looked again toward his gigantic but gentle
comrad~some day he would return and spend the
whole summer with these dear old friends.
So, while Waddy explained all over again how he
had compounded the magic sponge cake that shrank
the giant, while Bamboula impatiently cleared his
throat for the next song, the little boy took a slip of
paper from his pocket and scribbled a hasty note.
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"Dear Gureeda:
Please keep Terrybubble and my magic umbrella for me and say
good-bye to Waddy, Pansy and all of the others. I hate to go away,
but I must. Some day I'm coming back to read all the books you were
telling me about. Good-bye! Don't forget me!
"SPEEDY."
Feeling as if he had swallowed a baseball, Speedy
placed the note under his tall tumbler, gently touched
the arm of Ozma, who was sitting on his right, and
whispered an earnest sentence in her royal ear. Ozma
smiled, nodded understandingly and, touching the
jewelled Magic Belt she wore around her waist, spoke
a few words under her breath. As all heads turned
to the King's Su-jester, who had risen to render his
song, Speedy disappeared noiselessly from his place,
dropped lightly as a feather through the dream-like
mists and rainbows surrounding all fairy countries,
and came down with a soft thump in the middle of
the worn leather sofa in Uncle Billy's study.
CHAPTER 20
Home Again
UNCLE BILLY was sitting in an arm
chair looking mournfully out of the window,
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but he turned quickly at the little noise be-
hind him.
"Hello! So it's you! I thought you'd come
back, even though the professor assured me
you'd been blown to bits!"
The inventor jumped joyfully to his feet.
"Boy, let me look at you! Silks and satins,
boots and a queue! Where've you been? Looks as
if it might have been China!"
"Farther than that," chuckled Speedy, clutching
him exuberantly round the waist. "I've been to Um-
brella Island, and oh, Uncle!"
You, now knowing the whole strange story, will
realize Uncle Billy's astonishment and surprise at [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]