Get your own Free Home PageBefore we find out what was at the bottom of the hole entered by Prince Pompadore, we shall find out what has been happening to Kabumpo. After entering Kaliko's Palace, the Elegant Elephant ran through the rooms, looking for an exit. The rooms of the palace were highly decorated, filled with ornaments made of many different metals and stones. These ornaments were scattered all over shining metal tables. Large cloth-of-gold rugs lay on the palace floors. Kabumpo, however, did not bother to look at the decorations, but carelessly rushed through the palace, pushing tables and rugs out of place and knocking valuable ornaments onto the stone floor.
The palace, like most of the Nome Kingdom, was designed like a maze. Every room had several doorways that led into other rooms, each of them almost identical. Also, the palace was extremely expansive, there were no living creatures inside (excepting Kabumpo) inside, and the elephant was unfamiliar with the Nome Palace, so you can guess that, after looking through the palace for an hour, Kabumpo was as lost as Button-Bright often is. The Elegant Elephant finally decided to rest, so he lay down on a cloth-of-gold rug. He brushed aside a large ruby sculpture of a fish and stated, "I'll probably never be able to get out of this stupid museum that those ugly little dwarves call a palace, let alone this wilderness of Ev."
Suddenly, the fish disappeared in a puff of smoke. In the fish's place appeared a dark-skinned man wearing red robes and a red hard hat. This man noticed Kabumpo and asked the Elegant Elephant, "Who are you and what is this place?"
Kabumpo introduced himself and informed the man that he was in the Palace of the Nome King. The elephant then asked the stranger who he was and how he happened to be a fish.
"A fish? I don't remember being a fish," replied the puzzled man. "I am A. Miner and I work for the Red Jinn of Ev. Just a few minutes ago, I was working in a ruby mine. A fat, gray dwarf wearing a ruby crown and a jeweled belt entered the mine and tried to grab me. When I fought back with my shovel, the dwarf touched his belt, mumbled something, and waved his hand toward me. That dwarf must have been a magician, since I remember nothing about being a fish, or being taken to this palace.
"That dwarf must have been Ruggedo, the former King of the Nomes. He was a despicable little Ugly Mugly who hated miners because he believed that he owned all of the precious metals and stones in the world. He used the Magic Belt to enchant you, but you must have been transformed for an extremely long time, since Ruggedo hasn't been King of the Nomes for eighty years," explained the Elegant Elephant. "By the way, what's your name?"
"I already told you that," the miner told Kabumpo. "My name is A. Miner. Araunaudi Miner is my full name."
"Your name is A. Miner? Ho, ho, kerumph!" laughed the elephant.
"It is a very good name," stated Araunaudi reproachfully. "A name should describe the one who owns it. I see that your name fits you, as you seem to have bumped into the table. By the way, do you know how to get out of this place?"
"No," replied Kabumpo, suddenly remembering how annoyed he was. "I've been searching this cave for an hour."
"If I had my Magic Shovel, we could get out of here easily," stated A. Miner, "but Ruggedo must have taken it."
"What can your Magic Shovel do?" inquired Kabumpo.
"It can dig its way through nearly any obstacle," answered Araunaudi, bouncing a rubber ball coated in silver paint. "It was very useful in my mining. The Shovel was given to me by my master, the Wizard of Ev."
Strangely enough, the rubber ball disappeared. A large brown monkey took the place of the ball. It appeared to be an ordinary Ozian monkey, except for the facts that it was almost as large as a human and had a pair of wings.
"You must be one of the Winged Monkeys of Oz," said the Elegant Elephant. "Princess Dorothy of Oz told me about the Winged Monkeys, who must obey whoever wears a certain Golden Cap."
"I don't know about that," was the monkey's reply. "The Winged Monkeys were a free tribe when I lived in Oz. But I've been away from Oz for a long time. I became bored of flying around the Gillikin Country with the other Winged Monkeys, so I flew across the Deadly Desert to this Land of Ev. Here, I was captured by Nomes and taken to their King, a mean, ugly being with a Magic Belt. He used the Belt to transform me. Although I don't remember what happened after that, the Nome King must have taken me to this room. Do you know what I was transformed into, or how the enchantment was broken?"
"You were turned into a rubber ball," A. Miner informed the primate, "but I don't know why the enchantment was broken. I was just bouncing you. Perhaps Kabumpo knows why you were disenchanted. He seems to know a lot about hoztory."
"I do not know why your enchantment was broken," admitted Kabumpo. "Little is known about the Magic Belt, except that it has many powers and is sometimes considered to be the most powerful instrument of magic on the Continent of Imagination."
"Well, the important part is that I'm myself again," said the Winged Monkey. "My name is Oogab. Do either of you know how to get out of this place?"
"No!" chorused Kabumpo and A. Miner.
"Well, I'll try to find a way," announced Oogab, "and if I do, I'll come back here and lead you to the exit."
"And how do you expect to find your way back here?" inquired Kabumpo, in an irritated voice.
"We Winged Monkeys are like cats," replied Oogab, "in that we can always manage to find our way back to where we came from." With that, the flying primate exited the chamber through the northern doorway.
A few minutes later, Oogab returned. He was carrying a shovel with a ruby handle. The monkey dropped this tool on the stone floor next to the cloth-of-gold rug. "Do you think we could dig our way out?" he asked.
Kabumpo frowned at this suggestion, which sounded ridiculous to him, but A. Miner smiled and snatched the shovel, exclaiming, "My Magic Shovel! Now we can get out of here!"
Araunaudi held the shovel toward the stone ceiling of the room and said, "Dig!" in a commanding voice. The magical tool rose into the air like someone being levitated by a sorcerer. When it reached the ceiling, it dug through the hard stone as easily as if it had been sand. The Magic Shovel continued to dig until the entire ceiling was gone, as well as the dirt above it, exposing the room to the bright Evish sunlight. The dirt and rock that were cleared away seemed to have vanished completely. The shovel then fell down near Araunaudi's feet.
"Now what?" asked the Winged Monkey. "I can fly up and possibly take the miner with me, but I cannot carry the elephant."
In response to the monkey's inquiry, the miner commanded the shovel to go up and tossed it into the air. He then told Kabumpo to grab the shovel, which he did (with his trunk). The Magic Shovel soared straight up into the air, taking the Elegant Elephant with it. Upon reaching the level of the ground, the magical tool dropped Kabumpo on the surface of the Earth and returned to Araunaudi. The Evite used the shovel to reach the surface and Oogab flew to the ground.
"Now," said Kabumpo, "if everyone is ready, we shall journey to the Castle of the Red Jinn. Jinnicky can then send me to my home in Pumperdink and Oogab to wherever he wishes to go. Now, does anyone know the way to Jinnicky's Castle?"
When the Elegant Elephant asked this question, a wooden sign next to a road through the mountains began to glow with a bright red light. The elephant, the miner, and the monkey looked at the sign, which read, "This road leads to the Castle of the Red Jinn of Ev. You are now above the Nome Kingdom, so I suggest that you follow this road sooner, if not immediately."
"Now this is what I call excellent luck," stated Oogab.
"That road may be a trap," was Kabumpo's pessimistic observation. "Adventures are not usually very simple. However, I believe that Jinnicky's Castle does lie in that direction, so that is the road that we shall take."
The Elegant Elephant used his trunk to lift his two companions onto his back. He then followed the dusty road through the mountains that was indicated by the sign. Nothing much happened until evening, when the travelers reached a river. There was a sturdy steel bridge across the river, which Kabumpo was about to step onto when a voice yelled, "Stop!"
"Who dares to tell the Elegant Elephant of Oz to stop?" demanded Kabumpo.
"I do!" replied the voice.
"And who are you?"
"The Keeper of the Bridge!"
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