The Boolooroo was laughing and dancing around in front of them as if
well pleased. For a moment the prisoners could not imagine what had
happened to them, but presently half a dozen Blueskins, resembling
in shape and costume their ruler but less magnificently dressed, stepped in front of them and bowed low to the Boolooroo.
"Your orders, most Mighty, Flighty, Tight and Righty Monarch, have
been obeyed," said the leader.
"Very well, Captain. Take that umbrella and carry it to my Royal
Treasury. See that it is safely locked up. Here's the key, and if
you don't return it to me within five minutes, I'll have you
patched."
The Captain took the key and the Magic Umbrella and hastened away to
the palace. Button-Bright had already hooked the ropes to the
elephant-trunk handle, so that when the Captain carried away the
umbrella, he dragged after him first the double seat, then Cap'n
Bill's seat, which was fastened to it, and finally the lunch-basket, which was attached to the lower seat. At every few steps some of these would trip up the Captain and cause him to take a tumble, but as he had only five minutes' time in which to perform his errand, he would scramble to his feet again and dash along the path until a board or the basket tripped him up again.
They all watched him with interest until he had disappeared within
the palace, when the King turned to his men and said:
"Release the prisoners. They are now quite safe, and cannot escape
me."
So the men unwound the long cords that were twined around the bodies
of our three friends, and set them free. These men seemed to be
soldiers, although they bore no arms except the cords. Each cord had
a weight at the end, and when the weight was skillfully thrown by a
soldier, it wound the cord around anything in the twinkling of an
eye and held fast until it was unwound again.
Trot decided these Blueskins must have stolen into the garden when
summoned by the bells the Boolooroo had rung, but they had kept out
of sight and crept up behind the bench on which our friends were
seated until a signal from the king aroused them to action.
The little girl was greatly surprised by the suddenness of her
capture, and so was Button-Bright. Cap'n Bill shook his head and
said he was afeared they'd get into trouble. "Our mistake," he
added, "was in stoppin' to eat our lunch. But it's too late now to
cry over spilt milk."
"I don't mind, not much anyhow," asserted Trot bravely. "We're in no
hurry to get back, are we, Button-Bright?"
"I'm not," said the boy. "If they hadn't taken the umbrella, I
wouldn't care how long we stopped in this funny island. Do you think
it's a fairy country, Trot?"
"Can't say, I'm sure," she answered. "I haven't seen anything here
yet that reminds me of fairies, but Cap'n Bill said a floating
island in the sky was sure to be a fairyland."
"I think so yet, mate," returned the sailor. "But there's all sorts
o' fairies, I've heard. Some is good, an' some is bad, an' if all
the Blueskins are like their Boolooroo, they can't be called
fust-class."
"Don't let me hear any more impudence, prisoners!" called the
Boolooroo sternly. "You are already condemned to severe punishment, and if I have any further trouble with you, you are liable to be patched."
"What's being patched?" inquired the girl.
The soldiers all laughed at this question, but the King did not
reply. Just then a door in the palace opened and out trooped a group
of girls. There were six of them, all gorgeously dressed in silken
gowns with many puffs and tucks and ruffles and flounces and laces
and ribbons, everything being in some shade of blue, grading from
light blue to deep blue. Their blue hair was elaborately dressed and
came to a point at the top of their heads. The girls approached in a
line along the garden path, all walking with mincing steps and
holding their chins high. Their skirts prevented their long legs
from appearing as grotesque as did those of the men, but their necks
were so thin and long that the ruffles around them only made them
seem the more absurd.
"Ah," said the King with a frown, "here come the Six Snubnosed
Princesses, the most beautiful and aristocratic ladies in Sky
Island."