Yankee in Oz Page 8

  "Just wait till I get my teeth in the big Wampus!" snarled Yankee, trying to spring out after the Red Jinn.

  "Wait a minute, wait a minute," cautioned Tompy. "Jinnicky's in charge here. What will you do if the big gorilla rushes out at us?" he inquired anxiously.

  "Oh, I'll probably think of something," murmured Jinnicky indifferently. "Jumping jam pots! Here comes someone now, in a hopping hurry, too!"

  "It's a girl!" wheezed Yankee, ears and tail erect.

  "No," decided the Jinn after a long earnest squint. "It's an itty bitty pretty lady. Now, whatever is SHE doing up here and popping out of an ugly cave?"

  "She's wearing an apron and her hair is tied up with a duster. She must be the maid. Imagine a cave man having a maid!" Tompy's voice fairly squeaked with astonishment. There was no time for further guesses, for the swiftly running little figure had almost reached them.

  "Go away! Go away!" she implored, waving her arms frantically. "This mountain belongs to Badmannah the Terrible. Go away--leave at once!" she called, her voice rising to a piercing wail.

  "Watch it! Watch it!" cried Tompy as a second figure came charging out of the cave.

  "Cease! Desist! STOP that!" bellowed Jinnicky as the burly mountaineer caught the girl by the shoulders and started to shake her like a rug. Yankee, snarling fiercely, launched himself at the black bearded giant. Tompy grabbed the red umbrella from the arm of the jinrikisha and bounded after the terrier. Stopping just long enough to pull his siEver dinner bell and a small jug from the nearest basket, Jinnicky pounded after Tompy. As the hard head of the space dog hit Badmannah amidships, Tompy brought the red umbrella smashing down on his wrists. Howling with pain and fury, Badmannah dropped his little cave keeper and made a grab for Yankee, at which the Red Jinn rang his siEver dinner bell six times. Down flashed the faithful bell boy, snatched up the much shaken little cave keeper, and vanished so fast he left a hole in the air. Completely baffled by the quick appearance and disappearance of the bell boy, Badmannah paused long enough to glance upward, and did not see the small jug the Red Jinn was hurling at his head.

  "A bull's eye!" barked Yankee, as the red jug hit the big mountainer right in the middle of the forehead, smashed, and released a cloud of red dust.

  "What was it?" cried Tompy, as the bearded giant, clawing at his eyes, sneezing and coughing, turned and ran blindly back to his cave.

  "Red pepper!" exulted Jinnicky, dancing up and down. "If you ain't got strength, use strategy!" he puffed, unmindful of all syntax and grammar, and making a bee line for his jinrikisha.

  "Well, you can say we won that round!" boasted Tompy, running after the Red Jinn and falling among the cushions.

  "Boy, you really did pepper his hash,," sniffed Yankee bounding to his place on the floor.

  "Kachoo-hoo-hoo!" he sneezed as some of the red pepper wafted toward them. "Let's get out of here while we are still ahead."

  "But I hate a bully!" snarled Jinnicky, flashing his red glass eyes. "We can't go off and leave him here romping all over the mountain, tossing rocks at harmless travelers, and shaking pretty little serving maids. Princess Ozma would never allow such behavior, if she knew. Of course, Oz is not MY kingdom; mine is off in Ev beyond the Deadly Desert. But I have met Ozma and am determined to settle this big bully here and now!"

  "But how can we do that?" worried Tompy. "Red pepper will hold him back for a time, but when he comes out he'll be tiger mad. Then what?""Oh, I'll probably think of the right treatment," sniffed Jinnicky--

  Don't forget, boys, there's nev

  Been a wizard as clev

  As the rollicking, rollicking

  Red Jinn of Ev!"

  Bawling out the last line, the Red Jinn provokingly retired into his jug, so fast that his lid simply bounced.

  "So there he goes again." Yankee moved nearer to Tompy. "Pretty smart of him to whisk the girl off, though. Maybe he will come up with something?"

  "Maybe, but think of all the time we are wasting," fumed Tompy. "At this rate we'll not be home for a week, and I expect by now my mother and dad are about crazy. I'm supposed to be rehearsing the boys for a band concert on the tenth and have football practice on the twelfth, and here I am sitting on top of Upandup Mountain."

  "I'm here, too, remember," Yank'ee reminded him with a comforting nudge. "And after all, Tomp, you can put on a band concert or play football any old time, but think how seldom you can explore a country like this one, meet people like Su-posy, the Lanternesians, or the Red Jinn! Boy--I do dote on that little guy!"

  "Oh, I do, too," admitted Tompy, glancing nervously in the direction of Badmannah's cave. "But taking on a bearded giant like this is just plain crazy.

  "Rub my head, there's a good fellow," begged Yankee, deciding to change the subject. "Between that rock knock and butting that stone man, it's really buzzing. Wonder what the little cave keeper is doing now?"

  "She's dressed like a queen, feasting like a king, and sitting on my red throne, if Ginger obeyed orders," crowed Jinnicky popping up like a jumping jack. "So you like the old man a bit, eh?" bending over, he gave Yankee a quick squeeze and Tompy a friendly wink. "Well, I'm fond of you both, very fond. Har har de har! But the dog's right," he added more seriously. "When you have an opportunity to see strange places and people, you should enjoy those places and people. And do stop worrying, my boy. I promised to send you home and I will. Might even lend you this jinrikisha, if you fly me back home first. For, once in your country, my magic might not work and then--"

  "Then you'd have a chance to see our kind of country and our kind of people," observed Yankee slyly.

  "Yes, yes, so I would," grinned Jinnicky, pulling the space dog's ear. "But I just might prefer being king in my own castle, y' know."

  "I guess everyone likes his own country best," sighed Tompy, wishing the Red Jinn would start making plans to overcome Badmannah instead of delivering lectures.

  "Har har de har! Then I suppose you think I should not throw this hulking bully off this mountain because it's the place HE likes best?" teased Jinnicky. "Well, I might let him off if he promised to be a good mannah instead of a bad one."

  "Nobody could make that big buzzard behave," snarled Yankee, rearing up his head. "Brr-rrrrah--look out! Look out, here he comes again!"

  "And all dressed up," breathed Tompy reaching for the umbrella.

  This was quite true. Showing no ill effects from the cloud of red pepper, Badmannah was walking unconcernedly toward them, pulling along a huge net, such as fishermen drag behind their boats. His thick black hair and beard were brushed to a glossy sheen, and instead of a torn plaid shirt and baggy trousers he now wore a smart hunting jacket, leather shorts, green ribbed socks, and shiny black boots. On his head sat a wide-brimmed velour hat with a dashing purple feather.

  "Well, I'll be minced and jellied," muttered Jinnicky. "A handsome rogue, if I ever saw one!"

  "Don't let that fool you," warned Yankee under his breath. "He's just dressed as a gentleman, remember, and bad as ever he was. Where's that Mind Reader, Juggins? Let's find out what he's thinking."

  "Splendid idea," wheezed the Red Jinn. Pulling the Mind Reader from under a cushion, he opened it quickly to page one, keeping his eye glued to the yellow book all during the ensuing conversation.

  "Ah, still here I see?" rasped Badmannah, stopping a few yards from the jinrikisha. "Can't say I blame you. Nothing like this good mountain air. Hah!" Expanding his chest at least three inches, the cave man looked contentedly around, "What a day! A perfect day for fishing."

  "Fishing?" burst out Tompy. "But there's no water around here."

  "Quite true," agreed Badmannah pleasantly. "But you see I am not out to catch fish. Since you have mischievously done away with my cave keeper, I shall fish me up another little princess from down below!"

  "Princess!" Yankee's ears shot up. "Was the girl you were shaking a princess?"

  "Naturally," drawled Badmannah. "I always have a princess to wait on me and keep my cave clean.
This last one was best of the lot. What a cook! Ah, those feather light biscuits, those juicy huckleberry pies, those seven layered cream chocolate cakes," he murmured rolling up his eyes.

  "Cakes, pies, biscuits!" exclaimed Tompy, now as worked up as Yankee. "So it was YOU who aunt-napped the Princess of Wackajammy?"

  "Quiet! Quiet," demanded Jinnicky, pushing the snarling bull terrier down with one hand and rummaging frantically in one of his baskets with the other. "Oh, hi my tiddly igh! Where is my petrifying powder?" he howled. "The net! The net! We must get that net! Your lost princess is safe, but far worse is to come!"

  "I'll get it! I'll get it!" offered Yankee, lurching up so suddenly that Tompy had to hold his harness with both hands.

  "No! No! You'll be killed!" he screamed. "Let Jinnicky try some magic first."

  Paying no attention to the uproar behind him, Badmannah was striding rapidly toward the edge of the mountain.

  "Watch this, you pickled son of a potted prune!" he yelled derisively, pausing a moment to glare back at the Red Jinn. "Call yourself a wizard? Pah!" Covering the rest of the distance in three mighty bounds, he jerked up the great net and with one mighty swing sent it whistling down into the valley below. At the same instant, Jinnicky abandoned his search for the petrifying powder, gave the arm of the jinrikisha a frantic twist sending it up, out, and way over the spot where the net was hurtling downward.

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  Chapter 12: Badmannah Nets Another Princess

  FOR a tense moment the jinrikisha hung motionless, then sending it still higher, the Red Jinn swerved quickly to the left. In the nick of time, too. Swiftly as it hurtled downward, the drag net was rushing up and on this cast, Badmannah had netted not only a princess but a splendid emerald trimmed castle. If Jinnicky had not flown them off the mountain when he did, all three would have been crushed like egg shells, as the castle came crashing down on the mossy mountain top. Just before the landing, Badmannah with a single jerk, freed his net and stepped aside.

  "Magic, what miserable magic is this?" moaned the Red Jinn, clasping his shiny middle. Tompy leaning over the arm of the jinrikisha, rubbed his eyes, still not believing what he had seen and now saw. As for Yankee, the terrified terrier, shaking from head to foot, turned his back and buried his nose in the red cushions.

  "Don't tell me, don't tell me," he choked, speaking thickly through the cushions. "Everything is smashed, the princess,the castle, and all the people inside!"

  "No--no, nothing of the sort. Bad magic works better than that." The Red Jinn spoke morosely. "Not even one window in that castle is broken."

  "Why, there's the Scarecrow!" In his excitement, Tompy almost fell overboard, as the flirnsy straw man rushed headlong out of the castle, collided with Badmannah on his way in, and fell flat on his face. "It IS the Scarecrow," breathed Tompy, as the flimsy straw stuffed man picked himself up. "Then it must be Ozma's castle down there. Oh, it can't be!"

  "But is IS!" groaned Jinnicky, jamming his lid down over his ears. "It said in the Mind Reader that Badmannah intended to steal Ozma and her castle. And he has!"

  "Mean to say this wicked rascal has kidnapped the ruler of the whole Land of Oz?" Yankee swung around to have a look for himself. "Man, this is war. Call out the marines, launch the missiles, alert the Navy and strategic air force." Having issued what he considered the necessary commands, the bull terrier began to bark so loud and hysterically that Jinnicky covered both ears.

  "Stop! Stop it," ordered Tompy, tapping Yankee on the head with a drum stick. "This is not America, this is OZ. There are no marines, there is no Navy or air force or any missiles. There is no one but Jinnicky to stop Badmannah now."

  "Oh, yes, there is," sighed the Red Jinn glumly. "Have you forgotten the Wizard of Oz? He is probably down there in the castle now working on some magic trick to set that villian back on his heels. Everything happened too fast, there was no time, as a Wizard I'm a mis-er-a-ble Failure," he wailed, slumping down among his cushions.

  "You are NOT! You're a regular whizeringo of a wiz!" insisted the space dog leaping up to lick Jinnicky on the nose. "Besides, if that wizard down there is blinking clever, why doesn't he do something now. Why didn't he do something before?"

  "That's right!" grunted Jinnicky straightening up. "Why didn't he? Why doesn't he?"

  "Oh, look, look now!" gasped Tompy. "Badmannah is driving them all back to his cave. There goes Dorothy--and Scraps, there's the Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger, there's the Soldier with the Green Whiskers and Jellia and Betsy Bobbin--"

  "But where's Ozma, where's the Wizard?" panted Jinnicky, as Ozma's frightened friends and courtiers poured out of the palace, followed by the big bad mountaineer snapping his great net over their heads.

  "I'll get him! I'll fix him!" yowled Yankee with a leap that almost jerked Tompy's arms out of their sockets.

  "Are you crazy?" he hissed, jerking the terrier back by main force. "Maybe you're a space dog but you're not an eagle. You can't fly!"

  "Oh, my-me-misery mumbus!" Suddenly remembering something, the Red Jinn doved into the side pocket of his jinkikisha, pulled out a bulbous blue vase and flung it straight downward. Expanding like an enormous balloon, the vase dropped over the green castle, enclosing it in a great blue unbreakable bubble of glass. "That will keep Badmannah out and Ozma IN!" muttered Jinnicky, rubbing his hands with satisfaction. "Ginger and gum drops, boys, almost forgot I had my expanding vase along." Before his startled passengers had recovered from their surprise, the little Jinn sent the jinrikisha spinning off northward.

  "Why the big retreat! Why are we running away?" grunted Yankee. Without bothering to answer, Jinnicky winked and then precipitiously retired into his jug.

  "Well," gulped Tompy, taking a long breath. "Here we go again! I certainly hope this ding jingus knows where it is going," he muttered as they went soaring over mountains, valleys, and plains.

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  Chapter 13: The Red Jinn'S Castle

  WHILE Tompy still was wondering just where the red jinrikisha was carrying them, it sped across the borders of the Gillikin Country and out over the Deadly Desert which surrounds the Land of Oz. High as they were flying, the hot blasts from the burning sands made him wince while Yankee crouched down on the floor covering his nose with both paws. In his cool jug, Jinnicky had all the best of it. But as the heat became almost unbearable, a rush of salt air swept upward reviving the wilted travelers. Now they had not only crossed the desert but the greater part of Ev. Below on the northern shore of this pleasant tropical land rolled an immense emerald sea, foam crested waves breaking in endless procession on the siEvery beach. Close to the sea stood a glittering red glass castle, like no other castle in Oz or elsewhere. Large, low, and circular, with countless triangular turrets rising from its flat roof, it had kaleidoscopes topping each turret which spun around and around, their sparkling glass pendants tinkling like bells in the ocean breezes. Beyond the main castle were hundreds of smaller castles, exact copies of the large one. Every castle had circular gardens with flowering shrubs, date and palm trees. In the distance rose low and high mountains, range after range. At the top of the hundred glass steps leading to the castle, the jinrikisha came to a gentle and perfect landing. Almost as soon as it touched down, Yankee was out. Bolting down the many steps, he plunged joyously into the tumbling sea, diving through the green combers and riding them in, over and over again. Tompy longed to be doing the same, but hampered by his clothes, stared up at the castle, off at the mountains, and down at the sparkling ocean.

  "Man oh man," he sighed. "If I lived in a spot like this one I'd never go away."

  "Har har! I hardly ever do," puffed Jinnicky popping up his head. "But on this trip I met you and big bouncer down there. Wouldn't have missed that for a barrel of jumping beans."

  "Even though you were all cracked up doing it?" laughed Tompy, touching the jagged gash in the Red
Jinn's jug with a drum stick.

  "Even though," chuckled Jinnicky. "What do I care about that? Everybody's a little cracked, even though the cracks do not show," he sniffed, waving to Yankee who was bounding up the glass steps, three at a time.

  "Ough--wow. WOW! How do you stand all this grandeur?" snuffled the space dog shaking water in every direction.

  "I manage, I manage!" Jinnicky nodded his head like a china mandarin. "And why not? My people are brave. They love me and I love them, and each fellow is a king in his own castle. The ruby mines in the mountains take care of us all. The men work the mines and it's share and share alike with enough for everyone! But, good gollywoks, we can't stand here talking like people at a tea party. We can't leave Ozma on the mountain with a big bully like Badmannah. But I have a red magic trick or two that will settle his hashamaroo. HAH!"

  Tumbling out of his chariot, the Red Jinn clapped his hands three times. At the first clap, a black boy dashed out a side entrance and began rubbing Yankee with a red towel, a second boy handed Tompy a tall glass of EV ade, while a third, after one look at Jinnicky's cracked jug, ran screaming for Alibabble.

  "I tell you what," proposed Jinnicky almost as if he had read Tompy's mind, "why not cool off in my ocean while I'm assembling the proper jugs and jars."

  "Oh, could I?" Handing his empty glass back to the small servitor, Tompy looked around for a place to undress. With an understanding wink the boy took off, returning almost immediately with a big towel, a sharp pair of red trunks, and a small dressing tent which was quickly set up on the broad step. Yankee, meanwhile, wriggling out of the clutches of the first boy, went pattering after Jinnicky who already was pushing through the great glass doors of his castle. Stepping into the tent, Tompy slipped out of his drum halter and shed his clothes. Then cantering down the long flight of steps, he flung himself into the cool green water, to dive, float, tumble, and swim seven ways for Sunday! All the weariness and worry of the morning were soon forgotten in a familiar ocean. Waiting for him at the top of the stair when he finally came out was the same obliging boy, this time with two towels and his clothes, the band uniform brushed and pressed, his loafers polished and shining like glass.