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-The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Little Green Goblin, by James Ball
-Naylor, Illustrated by Harry L. Miller
-
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions 
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at 
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-
-Title: The Little Green Goblin
-
-
-Author: James Ball Naylor
-
-
-
-Release Date: February 18, 2020  [eBook #61441]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-
-***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE GREEN GOBLIN***
-
-
-E-text prepared by Mary Glenn Krause and the Online Distributed
-Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made
-available by the Library of Congress (https://www.loc.gov/) and Internet
-Archive (https://archive.org)
-
-
-
-Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
-      file which includes the original illustrations.
-      See 61441-h.htm or 61441-h.zip:
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-      or
-      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/61441/61441-h.zip)
-
-
-      Images of the original pages are available through
-      Internet Archive--See
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-
-
-[Illustration: It was a most beautiful sight, that city. (See page 103.)]
-
-
-THE LITTLE GREEN GOBLIN
-
-by
-
-JAMES BALL NAYLOR.
-
-Illustrated by Harry·L·Miller·
-
-
-
-
-
-
-The Saalfield Publishing Company.
-
-·New York·      ·Akron·Ohio·      ·Chicago·
-
-H. L. Miller · 1907.
-
-Copyright, 1907
-by
-The Saalfield Publishing Company
-
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: ILLUSTRATIONS]
-
-
-    It was a most beautiful sight, that city.                _Frontispiece_
-
-    A broad band of moonlight streamed in at the open window.           36
-
-    He picked up a large knotted pole for a cane.                       82
-
-    Two giants stood triumphantly grinning down upon twenty pygmies.   134
-
-    Bob and his comrade went straight to the mayor’s office.           160
-
-    “If you’re rested now, we’ll resume our sight-seeing.”             176
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: CONTENTS.]
-
-
-    CHAPTER                                                           PAGE
-
-       I. A Midnight Visit from the Little Green Goblin                  9
-
-      II. Bob Becomes an Aëronaut                                       25
-
-     III. Through a Storm in a Balloon                                  43
-
-      IV. In Danger of the Sea                                          57
-
-       V. In which Bob Becomes a Giant                                  71
-
-      VI. Lost in the Desert                                            87
-
-     VII. Fitz Mee Magnetizes the Spring                               101
-
-    VIII. The Balloonists Encounter Arabs                              117
-
-      IX. A Wireless Message to Headquarters                           131
-
-       X. Arrived in Goblinland                                        143
-
-      XI. In the Land where You Do as You Please                       159
-
-     XII. Before the Mayor of Goblinland                               173
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-A MIDNIGHT VISIT FROM THE LITTLE GREEN GOBLIN
-
-
-Little Bob Taylor was mad, discouraged, and thoroughly miserable.
-Things had gone wrong—as things have the perverse habit of doing with
-mischievous, fun-loving boys of ten—and he was disgruntled, disgusted.
-The school year drawing to a close had been one of dreary drudgery; at
-least that was the retrospective view he took of it. And warm, sunshiny
-weather had come—the season for outdoor sports and vagrant rambles—and
-the end was not yet. Still he was a galley slave in the gilded barge of
-modern education; and open and desperate rebellion was in his heart.
-
-One lesson was not disposed of before another intrusively presented
-itself, and tasks at home multiplied with a fecundity rivaling that of
-the evils of Pandora’s box. Yes, Bob was all out of sorts. School was a
-bore; tasks at home were a botheration, and life was a frank failure. He
-knew it; and what he _knew_ he knew.
-
-He had come from school on this particular day in an irritable, surly
-mood, to find that the lawn needed mowing, that the flower-beds needed
-weeding,—and just when he desired to steal away upon the wooded hillside
-back of the house and make buckeye whistles! He had demurred, grumbled
-and growled, and his father had rebuked him. Then he had complained of
-a headache, and his mother had given him a pill—a pill! think of it—and
-sent him off to bed.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-So here he was, tossing upon his own little bed in his own little room
-at the back of the house. It was twilight. The window was open, and the
-sweet fragrance of the honeysuckle flowers floated in to him. Birds were
-chirping and twittering as they settled themselves to rest among the
-sheltering boughs of the wild cherry tree just without, and the sounds of
-laughter and song came from the rooms beneath, where the other members
-of the family were making merry. Bob was hurt, grieved. Was there such
-a thing as justice in the whole world? He doubted it! And he wriggled
-and squirmed from one side of the bed to the other, kicked the footboard
-and dug his fists into the pillows—burning with anger and consuming
-with self-pity. At last the gathering storm of his contending emotions
-culminated in a downpour of tears, and weeping, he fell asleep.
-
-“Hello! Hello, Bob! Hello, Bob Taylor!”
-
-Bob popped up in bed, threw off the light coverings and stared about him.
-A broad band of moonlight streamed in at the open window, making the room
-almost as light as day. Not a sound was to be heard. The youngster peered
-into the shadowy corners and out into the black hallway, straining his
-ears. The clock down stairs struck ten deliberate, measured strokes.
-
-“I thought I heard somebody calling me,” the lad muttered; “I must have
-been dreaming.”
-
-He dropped back upon his pillows and closed his eyes.
-
-“Hello, Bob!”
-
-The boy again sprang to a sitting posture, as quick as a jack-in-a-box,
-his eyes and mouth wide open. He was startled, a little frightened.
-
-“Hel—hello yourself!” he quavered.
-
-“I’m helloing you,” the voice replied. “I’ve no need to hello myself;
-_I’m_ awake.”
-
-Bob looked all around, but could not locate the speaker.
-
-“I’m awake, too,” he muttered; “at least I guess I am.”
-
-“Yes, you’re awake all right enough now,” the voice said; “but I nearly
-yelled a lung loose getting you awake.”
-
-“Well, where are you?” the boy cried.
-
-A hoarse, rasping chuckle was the answer, apparently coming from the open
-window. Bob turned his eyes in that direction and blinked and stared,
-and blinked again; for there upon the sill, distinctly visible in the
-streaming white moonlight, stood the oddest, most grotesque figure the
-boy had ever beheld. Was it a dwarfed and deformed bit of humanity, or a
-gigantic frog masquerading in the garb of a man? Bob could not tell; so
-he ventured the very natural query:
-
-“What are you?”
-
-“I’m a goblin,” his nocturnal visitor made reply, in a harsh strident,
-parrot-like voice.
-
-“A goblin?” Bob questioned.
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Well, what’s a goblin?”
-
-“Don’t you know?” in evident surprise.
-
-“No.”
-
-“Why, boy—boy! Your education has been sadly amiss.”
-
-“I know it,” Bob replied with unction, his school grievances returning in
-full force to his mind. “But what is a goblin? Anything like a gobbler?”
-
-“Stuff!” his visitor exclaimed in a tone of deep disgust. “Anything
-like a gobbler! Bob, you ought to be ashamed. Do I look anything like a
-turkey?”
-
-“No, you look like a frog,” the boy laughed.
-
-“Shut up!” the goblin croaked.
-
-“I won’t!” snapped the boy.
-
-“Look here!” cried the goblin. “Surely you know what goblins are. You’ve
-read of ’em—you’ve seen their pictures in books, haven’t you?”
-
-“I think I have,” Bob said reflectively, “but I don’t know just what they
-are.”
-
-“You know what a man is, don’t you?” the goblin queried.
-
-“Of course.”
-
-“Well, what _is_ a man?”
-
-“Huh?” the lad cried sharply.
-
-“What is a man?”
-
-“Why, a man’s a—a—a _man_,” Bob answered, lamely.
-
-“Good—very good;” the goblin chuckled, interlocking his slim fingers over
-his protuberant abdomen and rocking himself to and fro upon his slender
-legs. “I see your schooling’s done you _some_ good. Yes, a man’s a man,
-and a goblin’s a goblin. Understand? It’s all as clear as muddy water,
-when you think it over. Hey?”
-
-“You explain things just like my teacher does,” the boy muttered
-peevishly.
-
-“How’s that?” the goblin inquired, seating himself upon the sill and
-drawing his knees up to his chin.
-
-“Why, when we ask him a question, he asks us one in return; and when we
-answer it, he tangles us all up and leaves us that way.”
-
-“Does he?” the goblin grinned.
-
-“Yes, he does,” sullenly.
-
-“He must be a good teacher.”
-
-“He is good—good for nothing,” snappishly.
-
-The goblin hugged his slim shanks and laughed silently. He was a
-diminutive fellow, not more than a foot in height. His head was large;
-his body was pursy. A pair of big, waggling ears, a broad, flat nose,
-two small, pop eyes and a wide mouth made up his features. His dress
-consisted of a brimless, peaked cap, cutaway coat, long waistcoat, tight
-fitting trousers and a pair of tiny shoes—all of a vivid green color. His
-was indeed an uncouth and queer figure!
-
-“Say!” Bob cried, suddenly.
-
-“Huh?” the goblin ejaculated, throwing back his head and nimbly
-scratching his chin with the toe of his shoe.
-
-“What are you called?”
-
-“Sometimes I’m called the Little Green Goblin of Goblinville.”
-
-“Oh!”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“But what’s your name?”
-
-“Fitz.”
-
-“Fitz?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Fitz what?”
-
-“Fitz Mee.”
-
-“Fits you?” laughed Bob. “I guess it does.”
-
-“No!” rasped the goblin. “Not Fitz _Hugh_; Fitz _Mee_.”
-
-“That’s what I said,” giggled the boy, “fits you.”
-
-“I know you did; but _I_ didn’t. _I_ said Fitz _Mee_.”
-
-“I can’t see the difference,” said Bob, with a puzzled shake of the head.
-
-“Oh, you can’t!” sneered the goblin.
-
-“No, I can’t!”—bristling pugnaciously.
-
-“Huh!”—contemptuously—“I say my name is Fitz _Mee_; you say it is Fitz
-_Hugh_; and you can’t see the difference, hey?”
-
-“Oh, that’s what you mean—that your name is Fitz Mee,” grinned Bob.
-
-“Of course it’s what I mean,” the goblin muttered gratingly; “it’s what I
-said; and a goblin always says what he means and means what he says.”
-
-“Where’s your home?” the boy ventured to inquire.
-
-“In Goblinville,” was the crisp reply.
-
-“Goblinville?”
-
-“Yes; the capital of Goblinland.”
-
-“And where’s that?”
-
-“A long distance east or a long distance west.”
-
-“Well, which?”
-
-“Either or both.”
-
-“Oh, that can’t be!” Bob cried.
-
-“It can’t?”
-
-“Why, no.”
-
-“Why can’t it?”
-
-“The place can’t be east and west both—from here.”
-
-“But it can, and it is,” the goblin insisted.
-
-“Is that so?”—in profound wonder.
-
-“Yes; it’s on the opposite side of the globe.”
-
-“Oh, I see.”
-
-The goblin nodded, batting his pop eyes.
-
-“Well, what are you doing here?” Bob pursued.
-
-“Talking to you,” grinned the goblin.
-
-“I know that,” the lad grumbled irritably. “But what brought you here?”
-
-“A balloon.”
-
-“Oh, pshaw! What did you come here for?”
-
-“For you.”
-
-“For me?”
-
-“Yes; you don’t like to live in this country, and I’ve come to take you
-to a better one.”
-
-“To Goblinland?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Is that a better country than this—for boys?”
-
-“Yes, indeed.”
-
-“In what way is it better?” Bob demanded, shrewdly. “Tell me about it.”
-
-“Well,” the goblin went on to explain, unclasping his hands and
-stretching his slender legs full length upon the window-sill, “in your
-country a boy isn’t permitted to do what pleases him, but is compelled to
-do what pleases others. Isn’t that so?”
-
-“Yes, it is,” the lad muttered.
-
-“But in our land,” the goblin continued, “a boy isn’t permitted to do
-what pleases _others_, but is compelled to do what pleases _himself_.”
-
-“Oh!” ejaculated Bob, surprised and pleased. “That’s great. I’d like to
-live in Goblinland.”
-
-“Of course you would,” said the goblin, placing a finger alongside of his
-flat nose and winking a pop eye. “Your parents and your teacher don’t
-know how to treat you—don’t appreciate you; they don’t understand boys.
-You’d better come along with me.”
-
-“I’ve a notion to,” Bob replied thoughtfully. Then, abruptly: “But how
-did you find out about me, that I was dissatisfied with things here?”
-
-“Oh, we know everything that’s going on,” the goblin grinned; “we get
-wireless telephone messages from all over the world. Whenever anybody
-says anything—or thinks anything, even—we learn of it; and if they’re in
-trouble some one of us good little goblins sets off to help them.”
-
-“Why, how good of you!” Bob murmured, in sincere admiration. “You chaps
-are a bully lot!”
-
-“Yes, indeed,” the goblin giggled; “we’re a good-hearted lot—_we_ are.
-Oh, you’ll just love and worship us when you learn all about us!”
-
-And the little green sprite almost choked with some suppressed emotion.
-
-“I’m going with you,” the boy said, with sudden decision. “Will your
-balloon carry two, though?”
-
-“We can manage that,” said the goblin. “Come here to the window and take
-a squint at my aërial vehicle.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Bob crawled to the foot of the bed and peeped out the window. There hung
-the goblin’s balloon, anchored to the window-sill by means of a rope and
-hook. The bag looked like a big fat feather bed and the car resembled
-a large Willow clothes-basket. The boy was surprised, and not a little
-disappointed.
-
-“And you came here in that thing?” he asked, unable to conceal the
-contempt he felt for the primitive and clumsy-looking contraption.
-
-“Of course I did,” Fitz Mee made answer.
-
-“And how did you get from the basket to the window here?”
-
-“Slid down the anchor-rope.”
-
-“Oh!” Bob gave an understanding nod. “And you’re going to climb the rope,
-when you go?”
-
-“Yes; can you climb it?”
-
-“Why, I—I _could_ climb it,” Bob replied, slowly shaking his head; “but
-I’m not going to.”
-
-“You’re not?” cried the goblin.
-
-“No.”
-
-“Why?”
-
-“I’m not going to risk my life in any such a balloon as that. It looks
-like an old feather bed.”
-
-“It _is_ a feather bed,” Fitz answered, complacently.
-
-“What!”
-
-The goblin nodded sagely.
-
-“Whee!” the lad whistled. “You don’t mean what you say, do you? You mean
-it’s a bed tick filled with gas, don’t you?”
-
-“I mean just what I say,” Fitz Mee replied, positively. “That balloon bag
-is a feather bed.”
-
-“But a feather bed won’t float in the air,” Bob objected.
-
-“Won’t it?” leered the goblin.
-
-“No.”
-
-“How do you know? Did you ever try one to see?”
-
-“N—o.”
-
-“Well, one feather, a downy feather, will fly in the air, and carry its
-own weight and a little more, won’t it?”
-
-“Yes,” the lad admitted, wondering what the goblin was driving at.
-
-“Then won’t thousands of feathers confined in a bag fly higher and lift
-more than one feather alone will?”
-
-“No,” positively.
-
-“Tut—tut!” snapped the goblin. “You don’t know anything of the law of
-physics, it appears. Won’t a thousand volumes of gas confined in a bag
-fly higher and lift more than one volume unconfined will?”
-
-“Why, of course,” irritably.
-
-“Well!”—triumphantly,—“don’t the same law apply to feathers? Say!”
-
-“I—I don’t know,” Bob stammered, puzzled but unconvinced.
-
-“To be sure it does,” the goblin continued, smoothly. “I know; I’ve tried
-it. And you can see for yourself that my balloon’s a success.”
-
-“Yes, but it wouldn’t carry _me_,” Bob objected; “I’m too heavy.”
-
-“I’ll have to shrink you,” Fitz Mee said quietly.
-
-“_Shrink_ me?” drawing back in alarm bordering on consternation.
-
-“Yes; it won’t hurt you.”
-
-“How—how’re you going to do it?”
-
-“I’ll show you.”
-
-The goblin got upon his feet, took a small bottle from his waistcoat
-pocket and deliberately unscrewed the top and shook out a tiny tablet.
-
-“There,” he said, “take that.”
-
-“Uk-uh!” grunted Bob, compressing his lips and shaking his head. “I don’t
-like to take pills.”
-
-“This isn’t a pill,” Fitz explained, “it’s a tablet.”
-
-“It’s all the same,” the boy declared obstinately.
-
-“Won’t you take it?”
-
-“No.”
-
-“Then you can’t go with me.”
-
-“I can’t?”
-
-The goblin shook his head.
-
-“Isn’t there some other way you can—can shrink me?”
-
-Again Fitz Mee silently shook his head.
-
-“W-e-ll,” Bob said slowly and reluctantly, “I’ll take it. But, say?”
-
-“Well?”
-
-“What’ll it do to me—just make me smaller?”
-
-“That’s all.”
-
-“How small will it make me?”
-
-“About my size,” grinned the goblin.
-
-“Oo—h!” ejaculated Bob. “And will it make me as—as _ugly_ as you are?” in
-grave concern.
-
-The goblin clapped his hands over his stomach, wriggled this way and that
-and laughed till the tears ran down his fat cheeks.
-
-“Oh—ho!” he gasped at last. “So you think me ugly, do you?”
-
-“Yes, I do,” the lad admitted candidly, a little nettled.
-
-“Well, that’s funny,” gurgled the goblin; “for that’s what I think of
-you. So you see the matter of looks is a matter of taste.”
-
-“Huh!” Bob snorted contemptuously. “But will that tablet change my looks?
-That’s what _I_ want to know.”
-
-“No, it won’t,” was the reassuring reply.
-
-“And will I always be small—like you?”
-
-“Look here!” Fitz Mee croaked hoarsely. “If you’re going with me, stop
-asking fool questions and take this tablet.”
-
-“Give it to me,” Bob muttered, in sheer desperation.
-
-And he snatched the tablet and swallowed it.
-
-Immediately he shrunk to the size of the goblin.
-
-“My!” he cried. “It feels funny to be so little and light.”
-
-He sprang from the bed to the window-sill, and anticly danced a jig in
-his night garment.
-
-“Get into your clothes,” the goblin commanded, “and let’s be off.”
-
-Bob nimbly leaped to the floor, tore off his night-robe and caught up his
-trousers. Then he paused, a look of comical consternation upon his apple
-face.
-
-“What’s the matter?” giggled the goblin.
-
-“Why—why,” the boy gasped, his mouth wide open, “my clothes are all a
-mile too big for me!”
-
-Fitz Mee threw himself prone upon his stomach, pummeled and kicked the
-window-sill, and laughed uproariously.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-BOB BECOMES AN AËRONAUT
-
-
-“You stop that, you mean old thing!” Bob blustered angrily.
-
-The goblin laughed the harder.
-
-“Stop it, I say!” the boy shouted, loud enough to waken all the sleepers
-about the house, he thought.
-
-The goblin continued to laugh and rub his fists and kick his heels.
-
-“Oh, you think you’re smart!” the lad pouted, tears in his eyes, his lips
-quivering. “Old Fits! Old Spasms! Old Convulsions! Yeah! Yeah!”
-
-“Here—here!” cried the goblin, springing to his feet and frowning darkly.
-“You mustn’t call me such names, boy.”
-
-“I will!” sturdily.
-
-“If you do, I’ll go away and leave you, just as you are.”
-
-“I don’t care.”
-
-“You don’t?”
-
-“No, I don’t.”
-
-“What’re you mad about?”
-
-“You played a mean trick on me, and then laughed at me—that’s what.”
-
-“I didn’t play any trick on you.”
-
-“You did, too. You coaxed me to take that pill.”
-
-“Tablet, you mean.”
-
-“Well, tablet. What’s the difference?”
-
-“I persuaded you to take it.”
-
-“It’s all the same.”
-
-“And I forgot you didn’t have your clothes on. Now you’ll have to put ’em
-on and take another tablet to shrink them.”
-
-“I won’t take it.”
-
-“Why won’t you?”
-
-“’Cause I won’t—that’s why. Think I want to _live_ on pills? I don’t like
-’em.”
-
-“Are you afraid to take it?”
-
-“No, I—I’m not. But it wouldn’t shrink my clothes, if I did take it.”
-
-“Yes, it will. Look at your night-gown.”
-
-Bob picked up his discarded night-robe and closely examined it. It was
-not larger than a doll’s dress. The lad grinned sheepishly, and began to
-hustle into his garments. They were a world too large for him, and hung
-upon his shrunken limbs in a baggy and outlandish fashion. His shoes
-were ten sizes too big; his cap rested upon his shoulders.
-
-“Huh!” he muttered in disgust; “I look like a scarecrow.”
-
-“Here!” the goblin said, soberly. “Take another tablet.”
-
-Bob shook his head.
-
-“What’s the matter, now?” asked Fitz.
-
-“I’m afraid to take it,” the boy replied.
-
-“What’re you afraid of?”
-
-“I’m afraid it will shrink me all away to nothing.”
-
-“No, it won’t.”
-
-“You’re sure?”
-
-“Yes. These are goblin tablets; gob-tabs we Call ’em for short. They just
-shrink a person to goblin size; you can’t shrink any more. Take it now;
-it’ll just shrink your clothes.”
-
-“W-e-ll, I—I don’t know; I can’t remain in this fix, though.” Then in
-sudden desperation:—“Give it to me; I’ll take it!”
-
-The lad swallowed the tablet. Barely had he done so, when his clothes
-shrank to fit him—skin tight.
-
-“Say!” he giggled gleefully, closely examining himself. “Those tablets
-are great.”
-
-“Sure!” winked the goblin. “Now are you ready to go?”
-
-“Why—why,” Bob faltered, “I’d like to bid my folks good-bye—especially
-mamma.”
-
-“You’re in nice shape to bid your folks good-bye, now, aren’t you?”
-sneered the goblin.
-
-“That’s so,” the boy muttered, sadly shaking his head. “But I do hate to
-leave ’em without saying anything about it—especially mamma.”
-
-“Huh!” the goblin grunted, contemptuously. “You tell your mother of your
-intention and she won’t let you go.”
-
-“Yes, that’s so.”
-
-“Well, let’s be off; we’re losing too much time.”
-
-“I—I can come back sometime, can’t I?”
-
-“Pshaw;” snapped the goblin. “I guess you’re satisfied with things here
-and don’t want to go at all.”
-
-“Yes, I do want to go.”
-
-“Well, come on then—and no more fooling. I’ll be a good comrade to you;
-we’ll have lots of fun. I’ll call you Bob and you’ll call me Fitz. Oh,
-we’ll have a bully time!”
-
-“All right!” the lad cried courageously. “I’m ready.”
-
-“That’s the stuff!” chuckled the goblin.
-
-They leaped upon the window-sill. Fitz Mee caught the anchor rope and
-shinned up it, and Bob nimbly followed.
-
-As the lad clambered into the basket he remarked:
-
-“Your balloon’s bigger than I thought it was, Fitz.”
-
-“You’re smaller than you were, that’s all,” the goblin grinned in reply.
-
-The car was indeed quite roomy and comfortable for such small beings.
-A box-shaped bench encircled it on the inside, serving as seat and
-locker, and at one side was a small tank of polished metal, with a pump
-attachment.
-
-“What’s that thing?” the boy inquired, indicating the shining tank.
-
-“What thing?” asked Fitz Mee.
-
-“That shiny thing.”
-
-“Why, that’s my air-tank and pump.”
-
-“It looks just like the air machine papa has in his office,” Bob
-remarked. His father was a physician. “He uses his in treating people’s
-throats. What do you use yours for?”
-
-“Don’t you know?” queried the goblin in surprise.
-
-“No,” answered the boy.
-
-“Well—well! It’s plain you never had anything to do with feather-bed
-ballooning. I use it in raising and lowering the balloon.”
-
-“In raising and lowering the balloon?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“You do?”
-
-“Certainly; that’s what I said.”
-
-“But how do you use it?”
-
-“I’ll show you in a minute,” Fitz Mee answered complacently. “You know
-how they raise and lower gas balloons, don’t you?”
-
-“Yes, I—I guess so,” the boy replied, a little dubiously. “The gas raises
-’em.”
-
-“Of course,” snapped the goblin, “that’s the lifting power, and feathers
-raise feather-bed balloons. But what do they use for ballast in gas
-balloons, eh?”
-
-“Sand bags,” Bob answered.
-
-“Yes,” the goblin pursued; “and when they want to go higher they throw
-out sand, don’t they?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And when they want to come down what do they do?”
-
-“Let the gas out of the bag,” Bob said at a venture.
-
-“That’s it,” Fitz Mee nodded. “And then they can’t go up again till
-they’ve refilled the bag—eh?”
-
-“I guess that’s the way of it.”
-
-“To be sure it is. Well, we work the thing better with our feather-bed
-balloons.”
-
-“We?” Bob cried. “Do all goblins use feather-bed balloons?”
-
-“Of course we do; that’s the way we travel. Didn’t you know that?”
-
-“No; I never heard of it.”
-
-“My—my!” Fitz Mee laughed. “You have a lot to learn, Bob. But I’ll show
-you how I can bring my balloon to earth or send it to the skies in a
-jiffy. When I wish to descend I just pump that tank full of compressed
-air. See?”
-
-“No, I don’t see,” Bob declared.
-
-“You don’t?” muttered the goblin, in surprise and irritation.
-
-“No, I don’t.”
-
-“Why, compressed air’s heavier than ordinary air, isn’t it?”
-
-“Yes, of course.”
-
-“Well, then, when I get that tank full the balloon’s heavier; and the
-increased weight overcomes the buoyancy of the feathers, and down I come.”
-
-“Oh!”—in open-mouth admiration,—“that’s great! And when you want to go up
-again you just let the compressed air out, don’t you?”
-
-“Sure!” blinked the goblin. “I’ll show you.”
-
-He caught hold of the anchor rope, jerked the hook loose from the
-window-sill, and wound up the slender line. Then he flew to the air
-apparatus and turned a cock. Immediately there was the hiss of pent air
-escaping through a hole in the bottom of the tank, and the balloon began
-to ascend—slowly and gently at first, then more swiftly.
-
-When it was a short distance above the housetop Fitz Mee closed the cock,
-remarking:
-
-“There! I guess that’ll balance us about right. We’ll rise a few hundred
-feet and float there.”
-
-His prediction proved true. When the balloon had cleared the hilltops,
-it stopped rising and floated motionless, like a great bubble with a
-dripping blob at its pendant point.
-
-“Say!” Bob cried, suddenly.
-
-“Well?” said the goblin.
-
-“That tank looks just like the one papa has in his office.”
-
-“It _is_ just like it,” the goblin assured him.
-
-“And the car looks just like mamma’s old clothes-basket.”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And the bag looks just like grandma’s old feather-bed.”
-
-The goblin nodded and winked and smiled.
-
-“Well,” Bob declared triumphantly, “I could take those things and make me
-a balloon.”
-
-“Of course you could,” grinned Fitz Mee, “if you were going to stay at
-home.”
-
-“And couldn’t I have fun showing off before the other boys!” Bob
-chuckled, gloatingly.
-
-“You’ll have lots more fun with me, in Goblinland,” his companion said
-quickly.
-
-“Maybe I will,” the boy murmured reflectively, a little sadly. Then
-observing that the balloon had stopped rising:
-
-“Why, what made us stop going up?”
-
-“Don’t you know?” the goblin returned with a half sneer.
-
-“No, I don’t,” the lad admitted.
-
-“Ho, ho!” Fitz Mee laughed, “You’re wonderfully dumb, you are,
-Roberty-Boberty.”
-
-Bob bristled instantly.
-
-“Don’t you call me names,” he cried angrily. “You old—old Epilepsy!”
-
-“Epilepsy!” the goblin cackled hoarsely, holding his sides and weaving to
-and fro. “What does that word mean?”
-
-“Fits,” the boy answered tersely.
-
-“Ho—ho!” the goblin continued to tackle. “You call me names, but you
-don’t want me to call you names. Say, Bob?”
-
-Bob made no reply.
-
-“Bob?” Fitz repeated in as pleasant a voice as he could command.
-
-Bob maintained a stubborn silence.
-
-“Bob,” his companion went on, “the reason we stopped rising is because
-the weight of the balloon just balances an equal volume of air at this
-height. Understand?”
-
-“Yes,” the lad muttered rather grumpily.
-
-“All right, and if we wished to go higher—”
-
-“We’d have to let out more of the compressed air,” Bob interrupted,
-brightly.
-
-“And if we desired to descend—”
-
-“We’d have to pump more into the tank.”
-
-“Of course,” mumbled the goblin. “You’ll make a great aëronaut one of
-these days.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-Then he lifted a lid of the locker, took out a small instrument and
-busied himself with the manipulation of its mechanism. Bob leaned over
-the edge of the car and devoted his attention to the scene below.
-
-Directly beneath lay the sleeping village, its roofs showing white in the
-bright moonlight. To east and west the hills rolled away, their summits
-hoary, their bases shadowy and obscure; and among them wound the placid
-river—a stream of molten silver threading the narrow vale. The roar of
-the distant mill-dam sounded sullen and indistinct, and the mists rising
-from it waved as fairy plumes and banners. The lad looked and listened,
-entranced, enraptured.
-
-“How beautiful it all is!” he murmured feelingly to himself, a catch in
-his voice. “I—I like it; and I rather hate to leave it.”
-
-“Homesick already, are you, before you’re out of sight of home?” Fitz Mee
-queried, his eyes upon the curious instrument he had placed in the bottom
-of the car.
-
-“No, I’m not homesick!” Bob retorted sharply.
-
-“You’re not?” Fitz grinned provokingly. “What did you mean by your words,
-then?”
-
-“I was just admiring the beautiful scene, that’s all,” Bob explained.
-
-“Oh!” ejaculated the goblin, wagging his head and saucily extruding his
-tongue.
-
-“Uh-huh,” the lad nodded in return.
-
-“Well, I’ll show you scenes far more beautiful—in Goblinland.”
-
-It was Bob’s turn to sneer.
-
-“_Maybe_ you will,” he said.
-
-“I will,” Fitz asserted positively.
-
-“When?”
-
-“When we get there, of course.”
-
-“Yes; when we _get_ there.”
-
-“Well, we’ll get there.”
-
-“We’re not going very fast; we’re still right over the town.”
-
-And the boy laughed aloud, scornfully.
-
-“We haven’t started yet,” the goblin countered.
-
-“No; and we’re not likely to start, as far as I can see—unless a wind
-storm comes on; and it may blow us in any direction.”
-
-“Bosh!” barked the goblin.
-
-“Bosh, yourself!” snarled the boy.
-
-“Say, Bob?”
-
-“What?”
-
-“Let’s quit quarreling.”
-
-“All right.”
-
-“Shake!”
-
-They solemnly shook hands.
-
-“Now,” the goblin cried briskly, “if you’re ready to say good-bye to
-home, we’ll be off.”
-
-“I’m ready,” the lad answered; “but I don’t see how we’re going to be
-off.”
-
-“I’ll show you. See that little instrument on the floor of the car?”
-
-“That compass?”
-
-“That’s not a compass.”
-
-[Illustration: A broad band of moonlight streamed in at the open window.
-(See page 11.)]
-
-“It isn’t?”
-
-“No.”
-
-“Well, it looks like one. What is it?”
-
-“A wireless selector.”
-
-“And what’s that?”
-
-“You’ve heard of wireless telegraph instruments?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And you know they send messages with them without using wires, don’t
-you?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Then, too, you’ve heard or read that there are currents of electricity
-running around the globe in all directions, haven’t you?”
-
-“I—I think I have; yes.”
-
-“Well, the selector picks up or selects any current the operator
-desires, and enables him to travel over it in his balloon, using it as a
-propelling power.”
-
-“Well—well!” Bob exploded, in frank admiration. “Just like a trolley car!”
-
-“Yes, except no wire is needed.”
-
-“I don’t see how you tell which way it’ll go, though.”
-
-“The balloon?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“It’ll go whichever way the needle points.”
-
-“Why will it?”
-
-“Well, the needle of a compass points north, doesn’t it?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Why does it?”
-
-“Because—because—I don’t know, I guess,” Bob admitted.
-
-“Because the attraction swings it, isn’t that it?”
-
-“I suppose so.”
-
-“Well, if the attraction swings the needle, won’t the needle swing the
-attraction?”
-
-“I—I don’t know,” the boy stammered; “I never heard of such a thing!”
-
-“Isn’t it a poor rule that won’t work both ways?”
-
-“Yes; that’s what folks say, anyhow.”
-
-“Well, it is—a mighty poor rule. Now I’ll show you. Watch me. I desire to
-travel due east; so I point this little needle in that direction. That
-done, I turn this thumb-screw, and off we start.”
-
-Slowly the balloon began to move toward the east, over the village,
-across the river, gradually leaving the valley behind.
-
-“I turn the screw a little more and a little more,” said the goblin,
-suiting the action to the words, “and we begin to travel faster and
-faster.”
-
-Soon they were going at a rapid and exhilarating speed. The air appeared
-to whistle past as they cut through it; the moonlit landscape appeared to
-flow away behind and beneath them.
-
-“My—my!” Bob cried, gleefully clapping his hands. “I never expected to
-travel as fast as this. Fitz, this is simply great.”
-
-“You don’t call this gentle speed going fast, do you, Bob?” Fitz
-returned, grinning broadly.
-
-“Indeed I do,” the boy replied earnestly.
-
-“Oh, we’re just loafing along!” the goblin chuckled. “I’ll show you how
-I travel when I’m in a hurry to get along. Take off your cap, or you’ll
-lose it, and hold on to the car. Now!”
-
-With the last word he gave another turn to the thumb-screw of the
-selector. The balloon leaped forward like a mad thing of life; the
-fragile car strained and quivered. Bob clutched the seat with both hands
-and held on for dear life. The air appeared to rush past in a cutting,
-shrieking tempest of wrath, that blinded and deafened the boy. He tried
-to scream out, but could not. He felt his grip upon the seat weakening,
-and, fearing he might be swept overboard, he loosened his hold and threw
-himself to the bottom of the car. There he lay, panting and gasping—sick
-with mortal terror. Then, of a sudden, the mad speed of the balloon began
-to slacken and the boy gradually gathered up courage to open his eyes and
-look around.
-
-There sat the impish Fitz Mee by the selector, his hand upon the
-thumb-screw.
-
-“Hello!” the goblin grinned apishly.
-
-“Hello!” the boy muttered in reply.
-
-“How did you like it?” queried the goblin.
-
-“I didn’t like it,” answered the lad.
-
-“Wasn’t it fast enough for you?”
-
-“Too fast.”
-
-“Oh!”
-
-“Uh-huh.”
-
-“Wouldn’t you like to try it just a little bit faster, eh?”
-
-“No _sir_!”
-
-“It’s great fun—when you learn to like it.”
-
-“Yes,” Bob grumbled; “and taking pills is great fun—when you learn to
-_like_ ’em.”
-
-“I can make the balloon go faster,” Fitz suggested.
-
-“I’ll take your word for it,” Bob grinned, shaking his head.
-
-They got up and seated themselves upon the locker.
-
-“Well,” the goblin remarked, yawning, “what do you think of us goblins as
-balloonists?”
-
-“I think you’re the candy,” Bob replied, his voice and manner evincing
-profound admiration.
-
-“The candy?” snickered his companion. “What do you mean by that?”
-
-“I think you’re the best ever.”
-
-“Oh! Better than you humans, eh?”
-
-“Far better.”
-
-“That so?”
-
-“Yes, indeed. And When I come back from Goblinland, I’m going to get
-patents on your air-ballast machine and your wireless selector; and some
-day I’ll be a mighty rich man—a millionaire.”
-
-The goblin grinned a very broad grin.
-
-“You’re going to take out patents on our inventions, you say, Bob?” he
-remarked.
-
-“Yes,” the boy made reply.
-
-“When you return from Goblinland, eh?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-Fitz Mee gulped and screwed his features. Then he began to chuckle
-silently, and at last he burst out laughing.
-
-“What’s the matter?” Bob inquired, half in wonder, half in pique.
-
-“Oh, it’s so funny,” croaked the goblin, and he went into another spasm
-of rasping, cackling laughter.
-
-“It _must_ be funny,” the boy grunted peevishly. “But what’s so funny?”
-
-“The thought of your returning from Goblinland, Bob,” Fitz Mee replied,
-sobering and wiping his eyes.
-
-“Why, can’t I return—if I ever want to?”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“You can, I suppose; but I doubt if you ever will.”
-
-“Why?”
-
-“Oh, ’cause.”
-
-“Well, ’cause what?”
-
-“You won’t want to, after you’ve been there a day or two.”
-
-“That’s it, eh?”
-
-The goblin nodded and winked seriocomically, mysteriously. Then he said:
-
-“Now we’ve got to ascend a few thousand feet to clear the tops of the
-Alleghany mountains. Let a little more air out of the tank. There—that’s
-enough. It’ll be quite cool at the altitude to which we’ll rise, so we’d
-better put on the fur coats that are in the locker under you, Bob, and
-curl down in the car and snooze awhile.”
-
-A few minutes later the two were asleep and the feather-bed balloon was
-topping the Alleghanies.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-THROUGH A STORM IN A BALLOON
-
-
-On awaking Bob was a little confused. But soon he remembered where he
-was, and he sat up and blinked and looked around for his companion. Fitz
-Mee stood upon the locker, a tiny binocular glued to his pop eyes, gazing
-intently at the western horizon. It was gray daylight, and they were
-making good speed.
-
-“What’s the matter, Fitz?” Bob demanded, alert and interested at once.
-“What’re you looking at?”
-
-“Looking at a storm gathering,” the goblin replied, without turning his
-head.
-
-The boy rose to his feet, removed his fur coat, and wadded it into a ball
-and stuffed it into the locker.
-
-“Storm?” he said. “I don’t see any signs of a storm.”
-
-“Don’t you see that blue line along the horizon?” Fitz asked.
-
-“Yes. Is that the storm?”
-
-“No; that’s the mountains we crossed. But take this glass and you can see
-the storm gathering on their tops. See it?”
-
-“My!” Bob exclaimed, the glass to his eyes. “I guess I _do_ see it! It’s
-a black one, too; and it’s moving this way. How soon will it overtake us?”
-
-This question he asked in some trepidation.
-
-“It won’t overtake us at all, unless we care to have it do so,” the
-goblin made answer.
-
-“Why, can we outrun it?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Sure?”
-
-“Sure, if we want to.”
-
-“Well, we’ll want to, won’t we?”
-
-“It’ll be fun to wait till it’s nearly upon us and then run away from it,
-I think. Don’t you?”
-
-“I—I don’t know,” Bob returned, dubiously shaking his head, his gaze
-still riveted upon the rising storm; “it _might_ not be fun.”
-
-“You’re afraid,” sneered the goblin.
-
-“No, I’m—I’m not.”
-
-“Yes, you are; you’re a coward.”
-
-“Don’t you call me that!” the lad cried, snatching the binocular from his
-eyes and angrily turning upon his Companion.
-
-“I won’t,” the goblin promised. “Now turn your glass toward the east.
-What do you see?”
-
-“I see the sea!” Bob cried rapturously.
-
-    “It’s plain to me as plain can be—
-    In fact, I see you see the sea,”
-
-hummed Fitz Mee in sing-song. Then he continued:
-
-“If you’ll take a glance at the ground beneath us, you’ll notice we’re
-moving very slowly. I’m loitering—waiting for the storm to catch up with
-us; then we’ll have a race with it, out across the ocean. In the meantime
-we’ll have breakfast.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Breakfast?” Bob questioned. “Where’s breakfast coming from?”
-
-“From the locker,” smiled the goblin, rubbing his round little belly
-and smacking his lips in anticipatory gusto, “where everything else we
-need’ll come from. I always keep my air-ship stored for a long voyage,
-for when I leave Goblinland on business, I never know when I’ll get back
-home again. Are you hungry?”
-
-“You bet!” was the lad’s expressive but inelegant rejoinder.
-
-“Well, what do you think you need this morning? You can have whatever you
-require.”
-
-“What do I think I need?” Bob tittered. “What a question! I need
-breakfast, of course, Fitz.”
-
-“Of course,” snapped the goblin. “But do you need muscle food, or nerve
-food, or fat food, or what?”
-
-“I—I don’t know,” stammered the boy, scratching his head in perplexity.
-“I never heard of such things, I guess. I know what I’d _like_, though;
-I’d like steak and gravy and hot biscuits, and some fruit and a glass of
-milk.”
-
-“Huh!” the goblin snorted in supreme contempt. “You’ll find, Bob, we
-don’t indulge in such indigestible truck in Goblinland. Our foods are
-scientifically prepared, not slapped together haphazard. We use nothing
-but the concentrated extracts—the active principals of food stuffs. I’ll
-show you.”
-
-He went to the locker and brought forth a small leather hand-case or
-satchel.
-
-“Why—why,” Bob muttered, his eyes bulging, “that looks just like papa’s
-medicine-case!”
-
-“Well, it isn’t,” Fitz Mee grunted irritably; “it’s my portable pantry.”
-
-And he loosened the catch and flung the case open, displaying several
-rows of tiny bottles containing tablets and pellets of various shapes,
-sizes and colors.
-
-“Ugh!” the boy gagged. “Pills!”
-
-“They’re not pills,” rasped the goblin; “they’re food tablets and drink
-pellets.”
-
-“They’re pills to me, all the same.”
-
-“They’re not pills, I tell you,” Fitz Mee reiterated sharply, snapping
-his jaws shut and angrily grating his teeth. “Now I’ll select what you’re
-to eat; and you’ll eat it. The storm’s approaching rapidly; I hear the
-thunder muttering and see the black clouds rolling. So you’ll need
-something to make you strong and courageous. Here’s a tiger-muscle tablet
-and a lion-heart tablet. Down ’em.”
-
-Bob shut his mouth and shook his head.
-
-“Down ’em!” the goblin repeated.
-
-“Uk-uh!” the lad grunted.
-
-“You must!”
-
-“I won’t!”
-
-“You’ll starve if you don’t eat.”
-
-“I’d rather starve than take pills.”
-
-“Nonsense!”
-
-“I would!”
-
-“It won’t take you but a second to swallow ’em, Bob,” Fitz Mee said
-coaxingly. “That’s one of the advantages of our kind of food; it don’t
-take long to eat a meal.”
-
-“I never begrudged the time I spent in eating,” Bob remarked, with rather
-a sickly grin.
-
-“Well, down the tablets—that’s a good boy.”
-
-“Are those—those things all you’ve got to eat?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And don’t you have anything else in Goblinland?”
-
-“No, of course not.”
-
-“Oh, dear!” wailed the boy. “I wish I was back home! Nothing to eat but
-pills! Golly!”
-
-“There, there, Bob!” the goblin said soothingly, kindly even. “You don’t
-wish you were back home; you’re just hungry and nervous. Take these
-tablets and you’ll be all right in a jiffy.”
-
-Bob silently held out his hand, his face a picture of lugubrious woe, and
-silently took the tablets and swallowed them.
-
-Fitz Mee idly fingered the tiny bottles in the case for a minute or two,
-mumbling over the names upon the labels. Then he looked up and asked:
-
-“Feel better, Bob?”
-
-“Yes,” the lad admitted rather reluctantly, “I feel stronger and better,
-but I’m still awful empty.”
-
-“But you’re not hungry?”
-
-“No; just hollow-like.”
-
-“That’s because you’ve been used to filling your stomach with gross
-food,” the goblin stated sagely; “you’ll get over that condition after
-you’ve lived on tablets and pellets a month or two.”
-
-“A month or two!” the lad groaned. “Oh, dear!”
-
-“You haven’t had anything to drink,” Fitz remarked, smiling brightly.
-“Take this pellet.”
-
-“What is it?”
-
-“A water pellet. It contains a pint of water.”
-
-“That teenty-weenty thing?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Oh, nonsense!”
-
-“It does.”
-
-“I don’t believe it; it can’t.”
-
-“You down it and you’ll soon see.”
-
-Bob took the tiny clear pellet and instantly announced:
-
-“My thirst’s all gone, Fitz, and I feel fuller.”
-
-“But you’re still a little lank—a little empty-like, eh?”
-
-“A little, yes.”
-
-“Well, I’ll fix you. Take this.”
-
-“Oh, stop,” the boy demurred. “I’m not going to take all the pills in
-that case.”
-
-“This is the last dose I’ll ask you to take,” the goblin returned,
-batting his eyes at a bright flash of lightning from the rapidly
-approaching storm.
-
-“Well, what is it?” Bob demanded, dodging the sharp clap of thunder
-almost immediately following the lightning.
-
-“A sponge tablet.”
-
-“What’s it for?”
-
-“It’s to absorb some of the water you’ve taken, and to swell and fill
-your stomach.”
-
-“I don’t want it—I don’t need it,” Bob said, decidedly shaking his head.
-
-“All right,” Fitz laughed, “you don’t have to take it. We just make ’em
-for folks who aren’t satisfied unless their stomachs are full all the
-time. Now I’ll eat my breakfast.”
-
-He hastily selected and swallowed a number of tablets and pellets; then
-he closed the leather case with a bang and a snap and thrust it into the
-locker.
-
-“Now,” he smiled, “I guess we’re all ready to play tag with that tempest.
-And we’ll show it a thing or two—oh, _won’t_ we!”
-
-“Maybe it’ll show us a thing or two,” Bob replied, grinning a sickly grin
-and shaking his head dubiously. “It’s getting pretty close and I don’t
-like the looks of it. My! Just see those clouds rolling and whirling!
-Fitz, I believe it’s a cyclone!”
-
-“No, it isn’t,” his companion muttered contemptuously; “it’s nothing but
-a summer thunder gust.”
-
-By this time the storm was close upon them, coming swiftly. The lightning
-was forking and flashing incessantly; the thunder was crackling and
-crashing continuously. Bob gazed at the rolling, tumbling masses of black
-clouds, at the play of electricity, and the forest and fruit trees
-bending before the blast, and shivered; he listened to the mingled,
-indescribable uproar of booming thunder and bellowing wind, and shuddered.
-
-“Oh, let’s be off, Fitz!” he pleaded.
-
-“We’re off!” his comrade cried, giving a half turn to the thumb-screw of
-the selector.
-
-Before the raging storm they sped, the boy frightened and miserable,
-the goblin elated and jubilant. Rapidly they approached the ocean, and
-soon they were sailing over a city on the shore. Binocular in hand, Bob
-watched the storm behind and the earth beneath, and trembled. He saw
-people rushing to shelter; saw fences and groves leveled, and skyscrapers
-and steeples sent crashing to earth.
-
-“Oh, Fitz—Fitz!” the lad groaned. “It _is_ a cyclone!”
-
-“I guess it is,” the goblin answered nonchalantly.
-
-“And it’s coming closer!” the boy cried in terror. “Let’s go faster!”
-
-“Oh, this is all right; this is fine sport,” the goblin laughed, capering
-about the car and gleefully rubbing his hands.
-
-Out over the ocean they flew—out of sight of land—out over the boundless
-expanse of heaving, tossing waters. After them raced the storm, each
-minute drawing a little nearer and a little nearer. It was almost upon
-them!
-
-“Please, please let’s go faster, Fitz!” Bob screeched, dancing up and
-down in an ecstacy of keen affright.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-But his shrill cry was whirled away in the tumult of rushing air that
-enveloped them, and if the goblin heard, which is doubtful, he paid no
-attention to his companion’s frantic plea. Then of a sudden the balloon
-stopped with a smart jerk and began to whirl round and round dizzily.
-Fitz Mee’s fat face went white as paper, and he let out a cry of alarm
-and dismay.
-
-“What’s the matter, Fitz?” Bob bawled, staggering to his comrade’s side
-and shouting in his ear. “What’s the matter?”
-
-“The lightning has magnetized the selector!” the goblin bellowed. “Look
-at the needle—pointing right back toward the storm! We’re drifting right
-back into it! There is nothing now to prevent it!”
-
-It was too true!
-
-Immediately they were engulfed—overwhelmed in the maelstrom of cloud
-and wind and rain. They could neither see nor hear for the fury of the
-elements. The balloon spun round and round like a top; the light car
-jerked and swayed and shot this way and that with lightning-like and
-awful suddenness. One of the small ropes supporting it broke and hung
-dangling from the side. Another parted and the car sagged dangerously.
-A frightful lurch and Fitz Mee was flung upon the locker, the breath
-knocked out of him; another lurch, and, with a despairing scream that
-sounded above the deafening tumult of the tornado, he rolled overboard
-and disappeared.
-
-Bob threw himself into the bottom of the car, his eyes tight shut, his
-palms over his ears, and lay there groaning and moaning. His comrade
-was gone and he gave himself up for lost. Oh, how he wished he was safe
-at home! But in the midst of the tumultuous storm and his tumultuous
-thoughts a bright idea suddenly came to him. He started, he sprang to
-his feet and was flung flat again. Then, shaking his head and gritting
-his chattering teeth, he wriggled over to the air-tank and turned the
-cock. The hiss of the escaping air was music to him. Little by little the
-buffeted balloon rose, and soon it floated serenely above the zone of the
-warring winds and clouds. Bob was saved!
-
-A little while he lay upon the floor of the car, looking at the clear sky
-overhead and wondering what he was to do. Then he thought of his lost
-companion, and murmured feelingly:
-
-“Poor old Fitz! Poor old Spasms!”
-
-As if in answer to his pitying words, he heard a voice calling faintly
-but snappishly:
-
-“Bob, you rascal! Don’t you dare to call me Spasms!”
-
-Electrified, the boy sprang to his feet and looked all around.
-
-“Fitz!” he ejaculated. “But where can he be?” Then in superstitious fear:
-
-“He’s dead; it must be his ghost!”
-
-“Ghost nothing!” came the voice again, a little louder, more vigorous.
-“Bob, you’re a fool!”
-
-“Is—is that you, Fitz?” the boy faltered in reply.
-
-“Of course, dunce!”
-
-“Well, where are you?”
-
-“Right down here, dummy!”
-
-Bob flew to the side of the car, hunkered upon the locker and peered
-over. There, a few feet down, was Fitz Mee hanging to one of the broken
-ropes.
-
-“Why—why, Fitz, what are you doing down there?” Bob asked foolishly.
-
-“Oh, just enjoying myself; surely you can see that,” the goblin sneered
-wrathfully. “But I’ve had enough; I’m no pig. Pull me up.”
-
-“I don’t know whether I can or not,” Bob answered. “But reach me up your
-hand; I’ll try.”
-
-After a deal of struggling and kicking and grunting on the part of both,
-Fitz was safely aboard.
-
-“I thought I was a goner when I fell over,” he panted; “I just happened
-to catch the rope.” Then, with unusual feeling: “And you saved us both,
-Bob, by thinking to let out the air. I couldn’t have hung on, in that
-storm, a minute longer; and, then the balloon was fast going to wreck. It
-was my foolhardiness that caused all the trouble, and your thoughtfulness
-that got us out of it. I’ll never go back on you, Bob, old boy, never!
-But now the storm’s past, we must get under way again.”
-
-“Will the selector work?” the boy asked in some anxiety.
-
-“It’ll be all right, now,” the goblin assured him. “See? Off we go again.
-And I’ll give her an extra turn for good speed; I’m keen to get along
-toward home. It must be the middle of the forenoon.”
-
-For an hour or two they sailed along steadily, covering mile after mile
-of aërial space with the swiftness of an arrow. At last, however, Bob
-remarked:
-
-“Fitz, it appears to me we’re closer to the ocean than we were a while
-back; we must be descending. I wonder if the rain wet the feathers in the
-bag.”
-
-“No,” the goblin replied positively. “They can’t get wet. They, and the
-bag, too, for that matter, have been treated with goose oil; and they
-won’t wet.”
-
-“Won’t wet?”
-
-“No. You know a goose’s feathers never get wet, no matter how much it
-goes in the water. We raise thousands of geese in Goblinland just for the
-feathers and the oil to treat them and our balloon bags with. We can’t be
-descending, Bob.”
-
-But he stepped to the side of the car and cast his eyes upward. Then
-suddenly he started and collapsed upon the seat, white and trembling.
-
-“What is it, what’s the matter, Fitz?” the lad questioned falteringly,
-fearing what the answer would be.
-
-“Bob,” his companion muttered hoarsely, “we are descending! We’re
-lost—we’ll be drowned in the ocean! There’s a rip in the bag and the
-feathers are escaping one by one!”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-IN DANGER OF THE SEA
-
-
-Bob drew a deep breath and dropped down beside his companion. For several
-minutes they sat silent, each staring stonily into the other’s white
-face. At last the boy murmured huskily:
-
-“Fitz, are the feathers es—escaping very fast? Can’t we do something to
-stop the leak?”
-
-The goblin shook his head.
-
-“Not very fast,” he said slowly, moistening his dry lips by rubbing them
-together, “just one at a time.”
-
-“Is the rip in the bag a very big one?”
-
-“No.”
-
-Bob brightened.
-
-“Couldn’t we climb up some way and fix it?” he inquired.
-
-The goblin gave a negative shake of the head.
-
-“No,” he replied, “it’s ’way up near the top of the bag.”
-
-“Well, what’re we going to do, Fitz?”
-
-“There’s nothing we _can_ do, Bob. The feathers are escaping—one now and
-then; and, little by little, the balloon will lose its buoyancy and sink
-into the sea. We’re lost!”
-
-“Look here, Fitz,” Bob cried sharply. “Surely you’re not going to give up
-that way. I didn’t think it of you. There must be something we can do to
-save ourselves.”
-
-The goblin dropped his chin upon his breast and, rolling his head,
-muttered: “Nothing!”
-
-“But,” the lad persisted, “we _must_ do something. There’s a little air
-still left in the tank, and when we sink too low we can let that out, and
-rise again. If we sail as fast as we can, can’t we cross the ocean before
-we drop into it?”
-
-Fitz Mee leaped to his feet like one electrified.
-
-“Thank you, Bob—thank you!” he cried, grasping his companion’s hand.
-“You’ve given me hope. We’ll try your project; and if we lose, we’ll have
-the satisfaction of knowing we died trying!” And he set his jaws with a
-resolute snap.
-
-“I can’t see where there’ll be much satisfaction in that for us—after
-we’re dead,” the lad muttered under his breath.
-
-The goblin hurried to the selector, and gradually turned the thumb-screw
-until the machine was wide open—the current was all on.
-
-The balloon instantly responded, and began to fly through the air at
-a speed little short of miraculous; its two occupants had to throw
-themselves prostrate and cling to the locker for safety. The still
-summer air appeared to be blowing a hurricane; the placid, heaving ocean
-appeared to be racing toward the west, a foaming, tossing torrent. One
-by one, a few each minute, the feathers escaped through the rent in the
-striped bag; and foot by foot, very slowly and very surely, the aërial
-vehicle yielded to the overmastering power of gravitation.
-
-On, on and on they sped, reeling off miles as a watch ticks off seconds.
-Neither the boy nor the goblin found anything to say. Both fully realized
-that they were running a race with death, and the knowledge awed them to
-silence.
-
-The noon hour came, and still they were flying like mad, due east.
-
-Fitz cautiously lifted his head, put the binocular to his eyes, and
-looked away toward the south.
-
-“There’s the Azores,” he said, shouting in order to make himself heard,
-his tone expressing relief and satisfaction.
-
-“The Azores?” Bob bellowed in reply.
-
-“Yes—the islands.”
-
-“Oh!”
-
-“Yes; we’re making good time.”
-
-“Well, hadn’t we better stop there?”
-
-“No.”
-
-“We’re only a few hundred feet above the water.”
-
-The goblin shook his big head in a decided negative.
-
-“Why not?” the boy insisted.
-
-“I’m afraid to stop there.”
-
-“Afraid?”
-
-“Yes; I’m afraid there’s no geese on those islands.”
-
-“Geese?”
-
-“Yes, we’ve got to have goose feathers to refill our balloon bag.”
-
-“Oh, I see! Well, what’re you going to try to do, Fitz?”
-
-“Going to try to make the coast of Portugal. We’ll find geese there.”
-
-“You’re sure?”
-
-“Yes; Portuguese.”
-
-And Fitz Mee laughed at his own pun until his fat face became purple and
-his breath came and went in wheezing gasps.
-
-“Oh, shut up!” Bob cried angrily. “This is no time to be laughing.”
-
-“Laughing will do just as much good as crying, Bob,” Fitz made answer,
-but instantly sobering. “I believe we’ll come out all right. There
-_are_ geese in Portugal; and I think we’ll be able to make the coast of
-that country. We’re making good time; and we’ve not had to exhaust the
-air-tank yet. We’ll drive ahead and hope for the best.”
-
-One hour, two hours, three hours passed. The balloon descended so low
-that the car threatened to dip into the waves. The goblin released the
-remaining air in the tank, and again they soared aloft, but only a few
-hundred feet. Another hour and again they were dangerously near to the
-water.
-
-Bob cried: “Why Fitz, the sun’s ’most down! This has been an awful short
-afternoon.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Yes,” the goblin nodded, “and the forenoon was short, too. You must
-remember we’re moving east very rapidly—running away from the sun,
-running to meet the night. It’ll be dark soon. I wish we’d sight the
-coast; it seems to me it’s about time we were doing so.”
-
-“What’s that wavy blue line ahead of us?” Bob inquired.
-
-“I don’t see anything,” Fitz answered.
-
-“I do,” the boy insisted positively. “Give me the glass.”
-
-“It must be land, then,” the goblin suggested.
-
-“It _is_ land!” Bob cried joyfully. “We’re going to be all right, Fitz.”
-
-“I—I hope so,” Fitz made answer; “I hope we’ll make it.”
-
-Warned by his companion’s tone and manner that danger was imminent, the
-lad jerked the binocular from his eyes and dropped his gaze to the ocean.
-One glance was sufficient; the car was threatening to dip into the water
-at any moment.
-
-“Oh, Fitz!” the boy wailed. “What are we to do?”
-
-“I don’t know!” Fitz whimpered, wringing his hands and wriggling about
-upon the locker. “We can’t do anything—oh, we can’t do anything! We’re
-lost—lost!”
-
-“Look here, Fitz Mee, you old Convulsions!” Bob cried angrily. “You got
-me into this thing; now you’ve got to help get me out. Wake up! You’re
-playing the baby. And you called me a coward! You’re the coward! Wake
-up!” roughly shaking him, “We’ve got to throw something overboard; and
-I’ll throw _you_, in about a minute.”
-
-Just then the car hit the water a glancing spat that threw a blinding
-cloud of brine over the two aëronauts. The balloon rebounded from the
-impact and continued its mad speed.
-
-“Whee!” screamed Fitz Mee. “You’re right, Bob. We must lighten the
-balloon some way; one more lick like that will tear the car loose from
-the bag. Raise the lids of the locker, and throw out a lot of the old
-stuff we won’t need.”
-
-Frantically they began to lighten ship, flinging into the sea odds and
-ends of various kinds—the accumulation of many voyages. It availed
-them little, however; the balloon ascended but a few feet, and skimmed
-dangerously near to the water, into which it threatened to take a final
-plunge at any moment.
-
-Now the coast line was plainly visible to the naked eye; and now it
-was but a few miles away, the hills and rocks standing out distinctly.
-Yet how far off it seemed to the despairing aëronauts! Neither spoke;
-each held his breath and his tongue, expecting to have to make a final
-struggle and swim for life.
-
-Lower and lower sank the balloon. Once more the car spatted the water,
-and this time it did not rebound, but went tearing along at railroad
-speed, deluging and almost drowning its occupants. For a few minutes the
-two lost all sense of their surroundings, nearly lost consciousness.
-Then the car struck the shelving, sandy shore with a smart bump, and the
-balloon came to a full stop. The wild and dangerous ride was over!
-
-“Saved!” sputtered Fitz Mee, jumping from the car and dancing up and down.
-
-“Saved!” coughed Bob, indulging in similar antics.
-
-Then they tearfully embraced, whirling round and round, their saturated
-garments dripping a circle of wet upon the yellow sands.
-
-The sun was gone from sight; the shades of night were stealing in upon
-them.
-
-“We can’t do anything to-night toward resuming our voyage,” the goblin
-remarked; “it’s almost dark now. Then you’re wet and weak and I’m
-famished and faint. We’ll spend the hours of darkness here upon the warm
-sands, and in the morning we’ll look around us.”
-
-“All right,” the boy agreed; “I guess that’s the best we can do.”
-
-By dint of a deal of tugging and grunting, they drew the balloon up out
-of reach of wave and tide. Then they wrung their garments, swallowed a
-number of food-tablets and drink-pellets and lay down to sleep under the
-shelter of an overhanging cliff.
-
-The sun was an hour high when they awoke. Simultaneously they opened
-their eyes and sprang to their feet. Sleep had much refreshed them; the
-warm air and sand had dried their garments. After partaking of a hearty
-but hasty breakfast, they began to look around them.
-
-At their feet lay their balloon, a sorry wreck. But close examination
-made plain the fact that it could be easily repaired and put in shape. A
-short distance to the north a river put into the sea. They sauntered to
-the mouth of it, and took in the view of the broad fertile valley. A mile
-or two up the stream lay a small village.
-
-“I’ll tell you what we’ve got to do, Bob,” Fitz remarked reflectively,
-scratching his head.
-
-“Well, what?” inquired the boy.
-
-“We’ve got to go into that town.”
-
-“What for?”
-
-“For cord and goose feathers. We need the cord to splice the broken ropes
-of our car, and we need the feathers to refill our bag.”
-
-“Yes,” the lad mumbled, “we need those articles all right, Fitz; but
-maybe the people of the village don’t have such things.”
-
-“Of course they do,” the goblin sneered superiorly.
-
-“How do you know?” the boy said tauntingly.
-
-“Well, I know.”
-
-“No, you don’t; you just guess.”
-
-“A goblin never guesses at anything.”
-
-“I guess he does; you guessed we’d get drowned—but we didn’t.”
-
-“Shut up!”
-
-“_You_ shut up!”
-
-“I won’t!”
-
-“Neither will I!”
-
-Then they stood and silently glared at each other for a full half minute.
-Finally both began to look foolish, and burst out laughing.
-
-“Fitz, you’re too hot-headed, you old Epilepsy,” Bob giggled.
-
-“I know it,” tittered the goblin; “but so are you, Roberty-Boberty.”
-
-“I know it,” the boy admitted; “but I can’t stay mad at you, Fitz.”
-
-“I can’t stay mad at you, either, Bob. Now let’s stop our foolishness and
-go to that village, and see about the cord and feathers we need.”
-
-“All right. But how are we to get the things, Fitz? Have you any money?”
-
-“I’ve got gold; that’s just as good.”
-
-“Gold?”
-
-“Yes. Look here.”
-
-The goblin took a bag of yellow nuggets from his pocket and emptied them
-out and shook them before the boy’s eyes.
-
-“Is that gold?” Bob inquired, interested and not a little excited.
-
-“Yes, to be sure,” Fitz Mee answered.
-
-“Where did you get it?”
-
-“In Goblinland.”
-
-“Is there much of it there?”
-
-“Bushels of it. These nuggets are as common there as pebbles are in your
-country.”
-
-“Indeed!” the lad exclaimed, in wide-eyed wonder and admiration. “You
-goblins must be mighty rich.”
-
-“We don’t put any value upon gold,” was the complacent reply; “we never
-use it at home.”
-
-Bob was thoughtfully silent for some seconds.
-
-“What’re you thinking about?” his companion inquired with a shrewd and
-cunning smile.
-
-“Thinking how rich I can be when I go back home,” was the a frank
-admission. Then abruptly: “What’s that coming down the road yonder, Fitz?”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Hello!” the goblin ejaculated delightedly. “We won’t have to tramp to
-the village. That’s a gooseherd. See; he has the geese tethered together
-with twine and is guiding them with a crook. We’ll wait here and buy them
-of him.”
-
-The gooseherd and his flock drew near. He was a tall, angular young man,
-ragged and barefoot. His merry whistle rose above the strident quacks of
-his charges, and his flat feet softly spatted the dust of the highway in
-time to his own music.
-
-Fitz Mee stepped forward, politely lifted his cap and said in greeting:
-
-“Good morning, Sir Gooseherd.”
-
-The young man stopped in his tracks and dropped his crook and his jaw at
-the same time. Plainly he was startled at the sudden appearance of the
-little green sprite and his companion, and just as plainly he was greatly
-frightened.
-
-“We desire to purchase your geese,” the goblin ventured, boldly
-advancing. “How much gold will buy them?”
-
-The gooseherd let out a shrill yell of terror and turned and fled up the
-road as fast as his long legs could carry him. The geese attempted to
-flee also, but, being tethered together, became hopelessly and helplessly
-entangled and fell to the ground, a flapping, quacking mass.
-
-Bob and Fitz laughed heartily.
-
-“Hurrah!” the goblin whooped. “The geese and cord are ours, anyhow.”
-
-“But we didn’t pay the fellow,” Bob objected.
-
-“I’ll fix that,” his comrade assured him. “When we’ve plucked the
-feathers off the geese, I’ll tie the bag of nuggets around the neck of
-one, and then we’ll turn ’em loose. The young fellow’ll find ’em and get
-the gold. And now we must hurry up and get through with this job and be
-off from this coast; the gooseherd may come back and bring his friends
-with him.”
-
-The two diminutive aëronauts laboriously disentangled the geese and
-drove them to the immediate vicinity of the wrecked balloon. There they
-plucked the feathers off the quacking, quaking fowls, and refilled the
-balloon-bag and closed the rent. Then they turned the stripped and
-complaining birds loose, one meekly bearing the bag of gold; and finally
-they spliced the broken ropes of the car and were ready to resume their
-voyage.
-
-“Jump in and pump up the tank a little, Bob,” Fitz cried joyfully. “I’ll
-be ready to weigh anchor when you say the word.”
-
-But at that moment came the patter of many feet upon the dry sand,
-followed by a shower of clubs and stones that rattled about the car and
-the heads of its occupants, and instantly the balloon was surrounded by a
-crowd of gaping, leering villagers!
-
-“Captured!” groaned Fitz Mee.
-
-“Captured!” echoed Bob.
-
-The villagers began to close in upon them, brandishing rude weapons and
-uttering hoarse cries of rage.
-
-In sheer desperation the goblin squirmed and grimaced, and ended his
-ridiculous performance by uttering a blood-curdling “boo!”
-
-The startled villagers fell back in indecision and alarm, tumbling over
-one another in frantic efforts to get out of reach of the little green
-sprite. Taking instant advantage of the respite, Bob whipped out his
-knife and cut the anchor rope, and with a smart jerk the balloon sprang
-aloft.
-
-“Saved!” murmured the boy. “Saved, Fitz Mee!”
-
-He received no answer; and he hurriedly turned to look for his companion
-who, a moment before, had been at his side. Then he sank back upon the
-locker, overcome with wonder and dismay. Fitz Mee was not in the car; Bob
-was alone!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-IN WHICH BOB BECOMES A GIANT
-
-
-The balloon was rapidly rising. Bob flew to the air-tank and frantically
-worked the pump. Gradually the primitive air-craft came to a stop, and
-floated motionless several hundred feet above the ground.
-
-Then the boy hunkered upon the locker and peered over the edge of the
-car. Distinctly he could hear the clamorous cries and yells of the
-Portuguese; and in the center of the jeering, hooting mob, he could
-barely distinguish his diminutive friend. The sudden jerk of the car had
-thrown the goblin out, right among the villagers; and they were dancing
-delightedly around the green little sprite, clapping their hands and
-whooping themselves hoarse.
-
-Bob caught up the binocular and directed it toward the scene below him.
-After a momentary inspection, he settled back with a sigh of partial
-relief.
-
-“I guess they’re not going to kill him,” the boy muttered. “But I wonder
-what they’ll do with him; and I wonder what’s to become of _me_.”
-
-Again he surveyed the scene below. The Portuguese were setting off toward
-their village, bearing the kicking, screaming Fitz Mee with them. A
-gigantic peasant carried the goblin in his arms.
-
-“I don’t know what to do,” Bob murmured, in deep perplexity; “I don’t
-know what I _can_ do. I don’t know the way to Goblinland; and so I can’t
-go there after help to rescue Fitz. I won’t go back home and leave him to
-his fate, though; that would be mean and cowardly. I—I don’t know what
-to—to do.”
-
-A while he sat upon the locker, silently and thoughtfully peering over
-the edge of the basket, occasionally putting the binocular to his eyes.
-There was not a breath of air; and the balloon hung motionless as a
-fleecy summer cloud. The boy saw the peasants making their way up the
-valley to the outskirts of the village, and noted the hub-bub that was
-raised among the other villagers, at the advent of the goblin. Then the
-whole crowd disappeared among the trees and buildings of the little
-hamlet. With a start, Bob roused himself.
-
-“I’ve got to do _something_,” he grumbled testily to himself; “I can’t
-just float here always. Poor old Spasms! I’ve got to help him out of the
-fix he’s got into, someway. I don’t believe he’d go back on me—I don’t
-_believe_ he would; and I won’t go back on him. But what in the world can
-I do?” scratching his head and frowning. “Oh, I’d like to be a giant just
-for a little while! If I wouldn’t show those Portuguese a thing or two!
-I’d drop right down among ’em, lick the last one of ’em—and carry Fitz
-away in the palm of my hand. Oh! but that would be fine!” And he chuckled
-and wagged his head.
-
-Then an idea, suggested by his wish to be a giant, came to him; and he
-leaped from his seat and hurried to the locker on the opposite side of
-the car, and threw it open. After a momentary search, he drew forth the
-hand-satchel containing the food-tablets and drink-pellets.
-
-“I’ll just see, anyhow,” he whispered excitedly. “If the goblins make
-tablets to shrink people, maybe they make some to swell ’em up—make
-giants of ’em. I’ll just see.”
-
-He opened the satchel and, squinting his eyes and wrinkling his brows,
-commenced to mumble over the names upon the tiny bottles.
-
-“Food-tablets—tiger-muscle, food-tablets—lion-heart, drink-pellets—pure
-water, food-tablets—fat, gob-tabs—for dwarfing purposes.”
-
-He grinned and shook his head.
-
-“I don’t want any more of those,” he grimaced; “I’m too small for any
-good use now. It’s funny there isn’t any—ah! What’s this? ‘Giant-tabs—to
-be used only in cases of extreme need.’ I’ll bet those are the very
-things I’m looking for. I’m going to try ’em, anyhow. If there ever was a
-case of extreme need, this is one.”
-
-He shook out one of the little tablets and was about to pop it into his
-mouth, when he started suddenly and sharply and shook his head, muttering:
-
-“It won’t do to take it now—till I get to the ground. It might swell me
-up so big my weight would overcome the buoyancy of the feathers or break
-the ropes of the car; and then I’d fall like a gob of mud. I’ll have to
-wait till I’m out of the balloon before I make the experiment. And it
-may get me into trouble when I do take the stuff—I don’t know; it may
-poison me—or swell me up so fast I’ll burst. Well, I don’t know what else
-to try; so I’ve got to do it. Now I’ll just sail out over the town, the
-first thing, and see if I can find out what those Portuguese have done
-with Fitz—poor old chap! My! I almost wish I was out of all this mess of
-trouble, and back home.”
-
-He set the needle of the selector as he had seen the goblin do, and gave
-a slight turn to the thumb-screw; and the balloon instantly began to
-move toward the village a mile or so away. When his vessel had reached
-a position directly over the little town, Bob shut off the power and
-brought it to a standstill. Then he took his glass and peered down among
-the roofs and treetops. He saw the people congregated in the central
-square of the place. It was evident they were holding some sort of public
-meeting. A speaker upon an improvised platform was wildly talking and
-gesticulating; and the other villagers were listening intently, mouths
-agape. Bob could hear the words of the orator of the occasion, and was
-surprised and pleased to learn that he could understand their meaning.
-The man was saying:
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“My people, I’ve called you together here to determine what we shall do
-with this strange being that has landed upon our shores. The first thing
-to do, however, is to ascertain what the thing is. It’s not a man—that’s
-plain; and I’d like an expression of opinion from you as to what you
-consider it to be. Speak out, now.”
-
-“It’s a big green frog,” said one man.
-
-Bob smiled as he listened.
-
-“It’s a green parrot without feathers,” said another.
-
-Bob grinned.
-
-“It’s a green devil,” ventured a third.
-
-Bob chuckled.
-
-“It’s a green monkey,” opined a fourth.
-
-Bob laughed outright.
-
-And the peasants heard him, and cast their gaze aloft; and immediately
-began to gesticulate and vociferate excitedly.
-
-“I’m a goblin, you fools!” croaked a familiar voice. “I’m a goblin, I
-tell you!”
-
-Bob then saw his friend. The latter was confined in a parrot cage hanging
-upon a post in front of a building. The speaker—who, it was plain, was in
-authority—quieted the populace; and then he continued:
-
-“As you will perceive, there’s another one of the strange beings up there
-in that balloon. Now, my opinion is that they’re moon-men from the moon.
-As you all know, the moon’s made of green cheese; and that would account
-for the color of them.”
-
-“But the one up there _isn’t_ green,” a woman objected; “he’s _gray_.”
-
-“No doubt he’s old and faded,” the speaker explained.
-
-Bob laughed heartily; then listened intently, for the official was saying:
-
-“My opinion is that these moon-men have come to bring a pestilence upon
-us, my children; and if we do not rid ourselves of them, we will suffer
-greatly. So I condemn them to death. This one that, by your great prowess
-and bravery, you have already captured, we will execute at sunset; and
-bury him with a great stone upon him, that he may know no resurrection.
-The other one must be captured. We must think of some plan to entice
-him within our reach. Let us adjourn to my official residence, there to
-consider the grave matter.”
-
-Soon the street was apparently deserted; but the boy could see guards
-peeping from places of concealment.
-
-“Bob!” Fitz Mee called softly. “Hello, Bob!”
-
-“Hello, Fitz!” the lad answered.
-
-“Come down and get me—quick!”
-
-“I don’t dare, Fitz; they’re watching.”
-
-“But you must get me out of this fix, Bob, somehow.”
-
-“Of course, Fitz. But how?”
-
-“Can’t you think of a plan? I’m so scared I _can’t_ think.”
-
-“I’ve thought of _one_ plan.”
-
-“What is it?”
-
-Bob gave a few strokes to the air-pump; and the balloon sank almost to
-the level of the treetops. Then the boy said, cautiously:
-
-“Fitz, do you hear me?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Well, this is the plan I’ve thought of: I’ve found some giant-tabs in
-your portable pantry; and I think of taking one of them.”
-
-“That’s the thing,” Fitz interrupted gleefully. “You’re a genius, Bob.”
-
-“It won’t hurt me—the medicine, will it?”
-
-“Not a bit.”
-
-“Just make a giant of me?”
-
-“That’s all.”
-
-“And I can go back to boy size or goblin size, when I want to?”
-
-“Yes; all you’ll have to do is to take a few gob-tabs.”
-
-“Ugh! more pills. Well, all right; I’ll do it, then. I’ll make a giant of
-myself, and sail in and knock these Portuguese galley-west—and carry you
-off.”
-
-“Well, do it right now,” Fitz cried impatiently.
-
-“I can’t.”
-
-“Why can’t you?” peevishly.
-
-“I don’t dare take the giant-tabs till I’m upon the ground, you
-understand; my size would wreck the balloon. And I don’t dare to come to
-the ground, right here and right now; the Portuguese would capture me
-before I could do anything. See?”
-
-“Y-e-s,” Fitz Mee admitted, disappointment in his voice. “But what _are_
-you going to do?”
-
-“I’m going over the hills out of sight, drop to the ground there, and
-hide the balloon, and then come back afoot.”
-
-“Well, don’t be very long about it, Bob.”
-
-“Oh! there’s no hurry. They don’t mean to kill you till sunset, Fitz.”
-
-“Well, do you think I want to stay cooped up here all day?”
-
-“You mustn’t get impatient, Fitzy,” the boy giggled.
-
-“You stop your laughing,” the goblin grumbled. “It isn’t funny.”
-
-“Isn’t it?” tauntingly.
-
-“No, it _isn’t_, Roberty-Boberty!”
-
-“Yeah—yeah! Old Epilepsy!”
-
-“Shut up!”
-
-“_You_ shut up!”
-
-“Say, Bob?”
-
-“What?”
-
-“You _will_ hurry, won’t you?”
-
-“Yes! But say, Fitz?”
-
-“Well?”
-
-“How is it that I can understand what these Portuguese say?”
-
-“Well, you know we goblins can understand any language.”
-
-“_We_ goblins?” the boy cried sharply.
-
-“Yes,” Fitz chuckled.
-
-“I’m no goblin,” Bob asserted stoutly; “I’m a Yankee.”
-
-“You’re a goblin—half goblin, anyhow.”
-
-“I’m _not_!”
-
-“You _are_! You’ve taken gob-tabs; and that makes you partly goblin.”
-
-“Fitz Mee,” the boy yelled, “you mean old thing! You say that again, and
-I’ll sail off home—and leave you right where you are.”
-
-“I won’t _say_ it any more, Bob; but it’s _so_.”
-
-“Good-bye, Fitz; I’m going.”
-
-“Not home?”
-
-“No; over the hills.”
-
-“Well, hurry back.”
-
-“All right.”
-
-Bob released a little of the pent air in the tank, and soared high above
-the earth; then he manipulated the selector and sped away over the hills
-out of sight of the village. When he thought it safe, he worked the pump
-and descended to the earth. There he made the balloon fast in a secluded
-spot near the highway—by tying it securely to a tree, with the piece of
-anchor-rope remaining.
-
-“There,” he breathed softly, “I’ll know where to find my air-ship; I’ll
-remember the place by this big funny-looking stone here at the roadside.
-Now I’ll take my medicine and be off to the rescue of my good comrade,
-Fitz Mee.”
-
-He took one of the tiny giant-tabs and swallowed it; and immediately he
-began to grow and grow—clothes and all. He stretched up, up till his head
-was on a level with the tops of the smaller trees; and he spread out till
-he was as big in girth as the trunks of the largest.
-
-“Wonderful!” he ejaculated, and his voice almost frightened him; it was
-as coarse and hoarse as the roar of a lion. He looked at his hands and
-feet—and laughed. They were as large as hams of meat; and his limbs were
-like the great limbs of an elephant. Proudly he strode about, crooking
-his arm and feeling his biceps muscle and muttering to himself:
-
-“Won’t I make a scatterment among those Portuguese! I’ll scare ’em all
-into conniption fits. But I won’t hurt any of ’em, unless I have to; that
-would be wrong, cruel—just like a big man whipping a little boy. But I
-must be off; Fitz will be tired of waiting. I wonder how far I’ve got to
-walk. My! but I’m _hungry_; and I want _meat_.”
-
-He picked up a large knotted pole for a cane and set off along the road,
-whistling; and his whistle was as loud as that of a calliope. The birds
-flew away in affright; and the hares and other small animals scampered
-into the depths of the forest. Bob smiled complacently, recklessly
-swinging his big knotted club.
-
-Presently he approached a hut by the roadside; and he went up to it and
-knocked upon the swinging door. An old woman put in an appearance; but,
-at sight of her gigantic caller, she let out a yell and fled back into
-the dusky interior.
-
-Bob turned the corner of the cabin,—his head overtopped the comb of the
-roof by several feet!—and dropped upon hands and knees and crawled into
-the kitchen. The poor old woman again caught sight of him; and fled
-from the premises, screaming shrilly. Bob pitied her and called to her
-to come back, that he meant her no harm; but his awful bellowing voice
-served only to frighten her the more. The boy-giant—or the giant-boy, or
-whatever he should be called—discovered upon the table in the center of
-the floor a leg of roast mutton, a loaf of black bread, a jug of milk and
-some fruit; and ravenously devoured the whole. Then he retreated from the
-kitchen; and, feeling much refreshed, resumed his way toward the village,
-taking strides fully fifteen feet long.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-But when he had gone a short distance, he met the old woman whose food
-he had eaten returning toward her home, accompanied by her husband. The
-man had been at work in the fields; and now he was walking rapidly, his
-head down, cracking his fists and valiantly declaring what he would do to
-the bold intruder when he encountered him. Bob heard the fellow’s rash
-threats, and gave a loud laugh. The man flung up his head, took one look
-at the boy-giant—and incontinently took to his heels, literally dragging
-his wife after him. Across the fields they flew, and disappeared in a
-bit of woodland; and Bob pursued his course unmolested, still laughing
-boisterously. It was all so very funny!
-
-[Illustration: He picked up a large knotted pole for a cane.]
-
-Shortly he reached the top of the hill, where he could look down upon the
-little village, whose inhabitants were all unconscious of the terrible
-being that was approaching it. There the boy-giant paused to consider.
-Shaking his head he muttered, a grin spreading over his coarse features:
-
-“Well, those giant-tabs have increased my size wonderfully, but I don’t
-feel that they’ve increased my courage in the same way. I’m almost afraid
-to go down into that town. Those Portuguese might take it into their
-heads to shoot; and I’d be such a big mark they _couldn’t_ miss me. But I
-guess there’s no other way; so here goes.”
-
-He loped off down the hill; and a few minutes later he was entering the
-village. Some children at play saw him coming and ran ahead of him,
-screaming frantically. A woman came to her door, and immediately followed
-the children, also yelling at the top of her voice. Several men hastily
-put in an appearance; and as hastily joined the woman and children, in a
-mad race toward the public square of the town. The alarm spread. Others,
-and still others—of both sexes and all ages and sizes—emerged from
-concealment; and sought safety in mad flight, all speeding toward one
-destination, the mayor’s official residence.
-
-The mayor and his officers and advisors heard the hub-bub and poured
-forth to ascertain the cause of it; and when the boy-giant arrived at
-the town’s place of public gathering, there they all were, yelling,
-screaming, shouting and gesticulating.
-
-Bob swung his big club and bellowed “boo! boo! boo!” as loud as he could;
-and the frightened people tumbled over one another in an effort to hurry
-to places of security. The mayor led the way, closely followed by his
-officers. All deserted the place but one old soldier. He ran at Bob, a
-rusty sword in his hand, and tried to hack the boy-giant’s legs; and the
-latter had to snatch the sword away from the pugnacious old warrior and
-take him across his knee and spank him soundly, before he would consent
-to behave. However, when at last the boy-giant set the old fellow upon
-the ground, he scampered away as fast as he could limp.
-
-“Oh, Bob—Bob!” Fitz Mee cried pipingly, piteously, a hint of tears in his
-voice. “I’m _so_ glad you’ve come. They had just decided to execute me at
-noon; and it wants only an hour of the time.”
-
-“A miss is as good as a mile, Fitz,” Bob laughed. “But we must get out
-of here before they recover their wits and their courage, and return;
-they might shoot us. My! but didn’t that old soldier want to fight? A
-few like him would have given me a lot of trouble. Well, here we go—for
-safety and a better country.”
-
-And he took the parrot cage containing the goblin under arm, and made a
-hurried retreat from the village.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-LOST IN THE DESERT
-
-
-As Bob moved rapidly along the country road, bearing his comrade in
-the parrot cage, he could hear the sounds of clamor and pursuit behind
-him—the barking of dogs, the confused shouting and yelling of men, and
-the booming and cracking of fire-arms.
-
-“Hurry, Bob, hurry!” squeaked Fitz Mee. “They’re after us!”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Yes, but their legs are too short,” Bob chuckled; “they won’t catch us.
-Don’t you worry, my teenty-weenty green frog, the naughty men shan’t hurt
-you.” And he held the parrot cage up in front of him, and with his finger
-playfully poked Fitz Mee in the ribs.
-
-“Quit that!” croaked the goblin. “And don’t you call me a green frog any
-more, either.”
-
-“Pretty little green monkey, that’s what it is!” Bob laughed, teasingly.
-
-“Shut up!” snapped Fitz.
-
-“Nice little green devil!” the boy-giant continued, shaking with laughter.
-
-“Shut up!” screeched the goblin. “Shut up, I say! I’ll scratch you; I’ll
-bite you!”
-
-“Sweet-tempered little green moon-man!” Bob persisted.
-
-“Look here, Bob Taylor!” Fitz cried, vexed and desperate. “If you don’t
-quit calling me names, I’ll—I’ll run off and leave you.”
-
-“All right,” the boy-giant returned placidly, “I’ll just set you down
-here in the road and let you run off.”
-
-And he suited his action to his words.
-
-“Oh, don’t, please don’t, Bob!” Fitz Mee pleaded, almost in tears. “Let
-me out of this cage, and take me up and go ahead. And don’t plague me
-any more, just because you’re so big and so strong. It isn’t like you,
-Bob—to be so cruel. I don’t like you as a giant; I’d rather have you as a
-goblin—as a boy, I mean—and I’ll be glad when you’re back in that state
-again.”
-
-“Maybe I won’t be a boy or a goblin any more,” Bob remarked thoughtfully,
-as he released his companion and took him up in his arms; “maybe I’ll
-just remain a giant. I rather like being a giant; I don’t have to take
-pills when I’m a giant. I can eat meat and things.”
-
-“But you can’t go in the balloon, as a giant,” Fitz Mee suggested.
-
-“No, that’s so. Well, maybe I won’t go in it any more; maybe you don’t
-want me to.”
-
-“You know I do, Bob.”
-
-“Sure?”
-
-“Of course! Aren’t we on our way to Goblinland, to have the time of our
-lives—hey?” shrewdly.
-
-“Well, I’ll go back to the form of a goblin, then, Fitz; but—ugh!—I don’t
-like the _pills_!”
-
-They topped the hill and reached the hut where Bob had taken the old
-woman’s dinner. He told the goblin what he had done, and the goblin
-chuckled and spluttered in great glee. The boy-giant shook him and said
-to him:
-
-“Have you any more gold about you?”
-
-“A little,” the green sprite made reply. “Why?”
-
-“I want it.”
-
-“What for?”
-
-“To pay that old woman for the dinner I ate.”
-
-“Well, you can’t have it.”
-
-“I can’t?”
-
-“No, you can’t!”
-
-“Why can’t I?”
-
-“It’s _my_ gold, not _yours_.”
-
-“I know, Fitz; but you’ll let me have it.”
-
-“_Will_ I? Not much, Roberty-Boberty!”
-
-“Take care!” Bob cried, giving the tiny fellow a threatening shake.
-“Remember I’m a giant right now, and liable to lose my temper. And don’t
-you call me any more names, I warn you. Now, hand over that gold.”
-
-“You’re a robber, that’s what you are, Rob Taylor,” the goblin complained
-sullenly, fumbling in his pocket for the gold demanded.
-
-“And you’re a mischievous, ill-tempered little pest,” Bob laughed.
-
-At last, with apparent reluctance, the goblin dropped two or three
-nuggets into the boy-giant’s broad palm.
-
-“There!” he muttered. “But I don’t see what you want to pay the old woman
-for.”
-
-“Because it’s _right_ to pay her,” Bob explained; “I took her dinner.”
-
-“Oh!” giggling.
-
-“Yes, sir. And you _know_ it’s right, Fitz; you’re just plaguing me.”
-
-“Think so?”—laughing. “Well, pay her. But hurry up about it; I hear our
-pursuers coming. You’ll fool around and get us trapped, if you don’t look
-sharp.”
-
-“Here!” Bob cried, dropping the goblin to the ground and returning the
-gold to him. “You go to the door and pay her. If she sees me, she’ll run
-away again. Go on; I’ll hide.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-With the words he stepped aside among the trees that bordered the road;
-and the goblin ran to the door of the hut and kicked upon it. There was
-silence in the cabin for several moments; then the door screaked on its
-hinges and slowly swung open. The old man and old woman were both there;
-but as soon as they caught sight of the green little being, they were
-more frightened than they had been at sight of the giant. With a great
-flirting of skirts and shaking of trousers, they leaped right over the
-goblin’s head and sped away to the fields again, yelling lustily. Fitz
-Mee rolled upon the ground, laughing immoderately; and Bob joined in his
-companion’s merriment. However, he called to him:
-
-“Throw the gold upon the floor—and come on; they’ll find it, if they
-ever pluck up courage to come back to their house. Come on; we’ve got to
-hurry.”
-
-The boy-giant caught up his wee comrade and ran as fast as he could
-toward the place where he had hid the balloon. The sounds of pursuit were
-close behind them. Into the woods Bob dashed and crashed; and soon he
-stood beside the air-vessel.
-
-“Open the satchel and get me a gob-tab—quick!” he bellowed to Fitz,
-tossing him into the basket.
-
-“A gob-tab?” squeaked Fitz.
-
-“Yes—quick!”
-
-“_One_ won’t do you any good.”
-
-“Huh!”
-
-“No; you’ll have to take a half-dozen. Here they are.”
-
-“Have I got to swallow all those pills?”
-
-“Yes, down ’em—and be nimble about it.”
-
-“Well, I _won’t_!”
-
-“Now, Bob!” coaxingly.
-
-“I won’t!” stubbornly. “You _know_ I don’t like pills!”
-
-“Bob, you’ll get us into trouble.”
-
-“I don’t care. I’d rather get into trouble than have trouble get into me;
-and that’s what pills are—trouble.”
-
-Just then came a loud rattling and crashing of the underbrush; and a
-large number of men and boys and dogs burst into the little open space
-and surrounded the two adventurers.
-
-“Surrender!” cried the mayor.
-
-“Get out!” roared the boy-giant in answer. And he set into kicking the
-too inquisitive dogs and cuffing the too venturesome men in a strenuous
-manner that made them fall back to a respectful distance—and in a great
-hurry.
-
-“Untie the balloon!” Bob bawled to his companion. “And give me those
-gob-tabs!”
-
-Fitz Mee did as directed.
-
-“Boo! boo! boo!” roared the boy-giant, leaping and dancing awkwardly
-about.
-
-“At ’em again!” commanded the mayor. “But don’t shoot; capture ’em alive!”
-
-Again men and boys and dogs began to close in upon the aëronauts. Fitz
-Mee signalled that the balloon was in readiness. Bob clapped the six
-gob-tabs into his mouth and hastily swallowed them—making a ridiculously
-grotesque face that caused his enemies to hesitate in their advance upon
-him. Then he tried to let out another startling “boo.” It started off all
-right, big and coarse and awful; but it ended in a tiny dribbling squeak
-that was so funny that the goblin dropped to the bottom of the car,
-squirming and laughing. Bob had suddenly shrunk to goblin size.
-
-“A miracle!” cried the mayor, crossing himself and retreating.
-
-“A miracle!” seconded his people, following his example.
-
-Taking advantage of the momentary respite in his favor, Bob jumped into
-the car. Fitz released the air; and away the balloon soared—up through
-the treetops—to the fleecy clouds far, far above the earth. Cries and
-wails of disappointment and chagrin followed the daring aëronauts.
-
-“Saved again!” yelled Bob.
-
-“Saved again!” croaked Fitz.
-
-“They came near catching us!” the boy panted.
-
-“Yes, and it was all your fault,” the goblin grumbled.
-
-“How do you make that out?” Bob cried sharply.
-
-“Why, you wouldn’t take the gob-tabs, and that delayed us—that’s how,”
-Fitz Mee retorted.
-
-“Yes, and _you_ lay down and laughed in the old woman’s door-yard; and
-that delayed us, too.”
-
-“It didn’t!”
-
-“It did!”
-
-“It _didn’t_, I say!”
-
-“It _did_, I say!”
-
-“Bob, you’re a contrary boy, that’s what _you_ are!”
-
-“And, Fitz, you’re a stubborn goblin, that’s what _you_ are!”
-
-Then they sat upon the locker and glared at each other—and burst out
-laughing.
-
-“Well, we got away, anyhow,” Fitz said.
-
-“That’s what we did,” Bob replied.
-
-“Let’s be off.”
-
-“All right.”
-
-“Here’s for Goblinland!” waving his arms.
-
-“Hurrah!” waving his cap.
-
-Fitz began to manipulate the selector.
-
-“You haven’t set that needle right,” the boy objected.
-
-“Huh?”—sharply.
-
-“No, you haven’t.”
-
-“Why haven’t I?”
-
-“Goblinland’s east from here, isn’t it?”
-
-“Of course.”
-
-“Well, you’ve set that needle pointing west.”
-
-“I haven’t.”
-
-“You have, too.”
-
-“Why, Bob, the sun rises in the east, doesn’t it?”
-
-“To be sure.”
-
-“Well?”
-
-“Well, it’s afternoon now, and the sun’s in the west; and you’ve set the
-indicator pointing straight toward it.”
-
-“I tell you it’s forenoon; and the sun’s in the east.”
-
-“Fitz, you’re _wrong_.”
-
-“Bob, I’m _not_.”
-
-“You’ll _see_.”
-
-“_You’ll_ see.”
-
-“Fitz Mee, you don’t know anything.”
-
-“Bob Taylor, I know everything.”
-
-“_Yes_, you do!”
-
-“I _do_!”
-
-“Bah!” the boy sneered. “You didn’t know enough to loose the latch of a
-parrot cage and let yourself out.”
-
-“And _you_ didn’t know enough to take gob-tabs when you needed ’em.”
-
-“Yeah!”
-
-“Yeah!”
-
-Both remained sullenly silent for some seconds. Then Bob said grumblingly:
-
-“All right, Fitz Mee, have your way. You’ll see, though.”
-
-The goblin made no reply; he simply turned the thumb-screw of the
-selector, and the balloon sailed away upon its course rapidly and
-gracefully. Presently, however, Fitz gave a start and muttered:
-
-“Why, we’re out over the water again; and we ought to be crossing the
-mountains. I wonder what’s the matter—eh, Bob?”
-
-“Oh! there’s nothing the matter,” snickered Bob, “except we’re going
-west, as I told you—going back to America.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Bob, I—I guess you’re right,” Fitz admitted, reluctantly.
-
-“Of course I’m right,” the boy said, swelling with supreme
-self-satisfaction.
-
-“Well,” muttered the goblin, “we can turn around and go the other way;
-and we _will_.”
-
-With that he again began to busy himself with the selector. But in a
-moment he mumbled peevishly:
-
-“Why—why, what’s the matter with this thing?”
-
-“What?” the boy inquired.
-
-“The needle won’t turn at all, Bob.”
-
-“It won’t?” stooping to examine.
-
-“No, it won’t. See?”
-
-“Yes. What do you suppose ails it?”
-
-“I don’t know.”
-
-“Don’t you understand your own machinery, Fitz Mee of Goblinland?”
-teasingly.
-
-“Yes, I do—when a certain boy from Yankeeland hasn’t meddled with it,”
-crossly.
-
-“Oh!”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“You think I hurt your old machine?”
-
-“I _know_ you did—in some way.”
-
-“Fitz Mee, I wish I’d left you in the hands of the Portuguese.”
-
-“No, you don’t.”
-
-“I _do_!”
-
-“Now, Bob!”
-
-“Well, what did you say I spoiled the selector for?”
-
-“I didn’t mean you did it on purpose, Bob.”
-
-“Didn’t you?”
-
-“No; I just meant you did it by accident. It’s a very delicate
-instrument, you know.”
-
-“Oh!”
-
-“Yes. Well, it’s done and can’t be helped. It appears that I’ve set the
-indicator west instead of east, so west we must go. It’ll be a longer
-journey, but who cares! We’ll sail right back across America and over the
-Pacific. I’ll open her up and let her fly.”
-
-He gave a turn or two to the thumb-screw; and the balloon shot forward—at
-the speed of a comet, almost. The two aëronauts dropped flat upon the
-floor of the car and remained silent, for the uproar occasioned by their
-rapid passage through the air prevented conversation. Soon, however, the
-mercurial boy grew restless; and he cautiously drew himself up across
-the locker and peeped over the edge of the basket. The goblin caught his
-venturesome companion by the heels and attempted to draw him back; but
-Bob wriggled and gesticulated, pointing downward over the rim of the
-basket, and finally grabbed Fitz by the arm and pulled him up on to the
-locker. The goblin took one peep; then rolled to the bottom of the car,
-and tightened the thumb-screw and gradually brought the balloon to a
-standstill.
-
-“We’re over the land again,” Bob gasped.
-
-“Yes,” panted Fitz Mee, climbing to his comrade’s side.
-
-“Well, what does it mean? We haven’t reached America already, have we?”
-
-The goblin shook his head, frowning in a puzzled way.
-
-“Well, where are we, then?”
-
-“I don’t know.”
-
-“Fitz, we’re lost.”
-
-“I guess we are, Bob.”
-
-The boy took up the binocular and looked all around.
-
-“Why!” he exclaimed. “There’s a city ’way back yonder on the coast, an
-odd-looking city like the pictures in my geography; and there’s nothing
-out there ahead of us but sand—sand—sand, as far as I can see.”
-
-“Huh!” snorted Fitz Mee.
-
-Then he rolled to the floor of the car, laughing immoderately and holding
-his sides and kicking up his heels.
-
-“Look here!” the boy cried angrily. “What’s the matter with you, old
-Convulsions? What’s so funny, I’d like to know?”
-
-“Why—why, Bob,” Fitz said, getting upon his feet and wiping his pop eyes
-upon the long tails of his coat, “we’re a pair of precious ninnies. We’ve
-been traveling south all the time—instead of east as I thought, or west
-as you thought. And here we are in Africa. We’ve crossed the narrow part
-of the Mediterranean; and we’re now in the southern edge of Morocco—right
-over the Sahara desert!”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-FITZ MEE MAGNETIZES THE SPRING
-
-
-Bob looked very sober, and said nothing; and Fitz continued:
-
-“So you see we were both wrong; we forgot that the sun is south at
-noon—that’s all. Isn’t it funny?” and again the goblin laughed.
-
-“I don’t think it very funny,” the boy replied, pouting his lips, and
-looking very glum.
-
-“You don’t?”
-
-“No, I don’t.”
-
-“Why don’t you?”
-
-“Because here we are in the desert—away south of where we ought to
-be; and the selector won’t work, and we can’t go back—can’t go in
-any direction but south. If we keep on, we’ll just come to the south
-pole—that’s all.”
-
-“Say!” the goblin cried. “I never thought of that, Bob. That’s so; and
-we’re in a fix, sure.” Then, after wrinkling his forehead and blinking
-thoughtfully for a few moments: “Well, there’s just one thing to do:
-we’ve got to fix the selector—got to find out what ails it and set it
-right. We’ll travel on till we come to an oasis; and there we’ll descend
-to the ground, and I’ll tinker the machine.”
-
-“Why can’t you do it here and now?” Bob suggested.
-
-“I’m afraid I might get us into worse trouble, Bob; might shake the thing
-up in some way that would cause it to run away with us. It’s tricky
-sometimes. No, I’ll wait till we come to an oasis; then I’ll work at it
-on the ground.”
-
-“All right. And I’ll work my teeth upon some ripe dates and any other
-fruit I can find.”
-
-“That reminds me, Bob,”—setting the balloon in motion,—“that we haven’t
-had any dinner; and it’s getting late in the afternoon. Why didn’t you
-mention that you were getting hungry?”
-
-“Oh! I’m not _very_ hungry; you know I had a big meal that I got from the
-old woman’s table. But you haven’t eaten anything since morning, have
-you, Fitz?”
-
-“No, but I’ll eat now as we go along; and you can join me.”
-
-“Oh, _can_ I?” contemptuously.
-
-“Certainly.”
-
-“You’re very kind.”
-
-“Aren’t you hungry?”
-
-“Not hungry enough to take pills.”
-
-“Bob, I tell you they’re _not_ pills; they’re food tablets.”
-
-“They’re pills all the same, Fitz; and I won’t take ’em when I can get
-anything else. And I think I’ll find some fruit when we reach an oasis.”
-
-The goblin said no more; but silently opened the hand-satchel, and took
-out and swallowed a number of the tiny tablets and pellets, smacking his
-lips in a manner that made his companion turn up his nose in disgust.
-
-The sun was slowly sinking in the west. Bob had the binocular to his eyes
-and was sweeping the southern horizon. Suddenly he cried:
-
-“Look! Look, Fitz! We’re coming to a great city!”
-
-The goblin smiled pityingly, wagging his head and rolling his eyes.
-
-“Don’t you see it?” the boy asked eagerly.
-
-The goblin nodded, still smiling. Bob leveled his glass upon the distant
-city and continued to observe it. It was a most beautiful sight, that
-city. It stood upon the bank of a blue lake; and its white walls, its
-domes and spires, glistened in the rays of the declining sun. But
-gradually it began to fade away; and little by little it disappeared from
-view.
-
-“Why—why,” the boy cried, “what’s become of it, Fitz? I can’t see it any
-more. What’s become of it?”
-
-“Don’t you know?” the goblin snickered.
-
-“No.”
-
-“You didn’t see any city, Bob.”
-
-“I know I _did_! Think I can’t _see_?”
-
-“Yes, you can see; but you didn’t see any city.”
-
-“What did I see, then?”
-
-“A mirage.”
-
-“Oh!”
-
-“You know what I mean?”
-
-“Yes. Was that all it was?”
-
-“That was all.”
-
-“Well, it was beautiful, anyway. And there’s another one—a lot of grass
-and green trees this time.”
-
-“That’s an oasis.”
-
-“Maybe it’s just another mirage.”
-
-“No, it’s an oasis. See! It’s getting closer and clearer all the time.
-There’s where we’ll stop.”
-
-The swift speed of their air-vessel soon brought them to the green
-oasis. There they descended to the earth, pumped the tank full of air,
-and firmly secured the balloon to a tree. Then Fitz set about to repair
-the selector, and Bob began to search for fruit. The boy was successful
-in his quest and soon returned to his comrade, his cap full of luscious
-dates. The goblin was sitting upon the ground, his back against the side
-of the basket, apparently glum and half asleep.
-
-“Have some, Fitz,” the boy mumbled, his mouth full of fruit, offering a
-share to his companion. Fitz drowsily shook his head.
-
-“Did you get the selector fixed?” Bob inquired.
-
-The goblin nodded, batting his eyes.
-
-“I—I _guess_ I’ve got it fixed,” he said.
-
-“What was the matter with it?”
-
-“I don’t know, Bob. I never had a selector act like this one does; I’m
-afraid it’s permanently magnetized.”
-
-“Why, what would put it in that condition, Fitz?”
-
-“Oh! I don’t know, I guess.”
-
-“Yes, you do. Out with it.”
-
-“I don’t want to scare you, Bob, but—”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Scare me? Pooh! Out with it.”
-
-“Well, down here in Africa somewhere—I don’t know just where—there’s a
-magnetic mountain; and we goblins have had trouble with it. Whenever we
-get within the zone of its power with our balloons, it magnetizes our
-selectors so they won’t work right; and if we get too close, it draws us
-to it—and we have great trouble in getting away. Some of my countrymen
-have had to abandon their balloons and walk miles and miles, and then
-send a wireless message home for help.”
-
-“Is that _so_?”—mouth agape.
-
-“Yes, indeed.”
-
-“And you think that’s what ails our selector?”
-
-“I’m afraid it is.”
-
-“Well, what’re we going to do about it?”
-
-“There’s very little we _can_ do—if that’s what’s the matter with our
-machine. It seems to be all right now; but you must remember we’re on the
-ground, with other mountains between us and the magnetic peak—breaking
-its power, as it were. Probably when we’re high in the air again, we’ll
-encounter the old difficulty.”
-
-“Then we’d better sail as close to the earth as we can, Fitz, till we’re
-beyond the influence of that strange mountain.”
-
-“That’s a good idea, Bob; I’d already thought of it. And, as the sun’s
-almost down and we’ll need to see our way when travelling close to the
-ground, I think we’d better spend the night here, don’t you?”
-
-“Yes. But—but say, Fitz!”
-
-“What?”
-
-“If you need to send a wireless phone message to Goblinland, how do you
-do it?”
-
-Fitz Mee silently drew from his pocket a small shiny metallic box, and
-opened it. It contained a tiny telephone instrument, perfect in every
-detail—speaking-tube, receiver and all.
-
-“My!” the boy exclaimed in admiration and wonder. “Isn’t it pretty and
-isn’t it little! But how do you use it, Fitz?”
-
-“Just like you use any telephone,” the goblin replied complacently.
-
-“Do you take down that teenty-weenty little receiver and call up central
-in Goblinland?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And central gives you whatever number you want?”
-
-The goblin nodded.
-
-“Say!” the boy cried excitedly. “Call up some one right now, Fitz.”
-
-The goblin shook his head.
-
-“Yes,” Bob insisted; “I want to see how it works.”
-
-“I don’t dare to.”
-
-“Don’t _dare_ to?”
-
-“No.”
-
-“Why?”
-
-“There’s a law against using the instrument, except for messages of grave
-importance.”
-
-“Oh!”
-
-“Uh-huh.”
-
-Fitz Mee closed the little box and returned it to his pocket; Bob resumed
-the munching of his ripe fruit.
-
-“Won’t you have some, Fitz?” he suggested, temptingly displaying it to
-the goblin’s gaze.
-
-“Uk-uh!” Fitz grunted.
-
-“Better try some; it’s fine.”
-
-“It would make me sick.”
-
-“Pshaw!”—incredulously, contemptuously.
-
-“I’m afraid it would; I’m afraid it will make _you_ sick.”
-
-“Me?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Huh! Fruit never makes _me_ sick; I can eat bushels of it.”
-
-“You mean you _could_.”
-
-“What?”
-
-“You could—when you were a boy.”
-
-“Well?”
-
-“Well, you’re part goblin now.”
-
-“Well, I’m _not_!”
-
-“You’ll see, Bob.”
-
-“Well, I _will_ see; I’ll eat this fruit and prove to you, Fitzy, that
-I’m just a healthy boy.”
-
-“All right,” the goblin grinned.
-
-Bob finished his fruit—to the last date. Then he went to the great spring
-near at hand, and lay down and drank his fill. He set out to return to
-his comrade; but suddenly he became so ill that he dropped upon the
-ground and rolled and writhed and groaned. Fitz came flying to him.
-
-“Here, Bob,” he said quietly, “take this,” offering the wriggling boy a
-tablet.
-
-“Oh! pills! pills! pills!” Bob moaned. But he took the tablet and downed
-it; and soon he was relieved of the fruit—and his pain. Sheepishly he got
-on his feet and sauntered back to the balloon, crestfallen and subdued.
-All Fitz Mee said to him was:
-
-“I guess you’ll know enough to stick to goblin diet after this.”
-
-And Bob made no reply.
-
-The sun had gone down; dusky shadows were gathering from far and near and
-throwing themselves prone upon the desert sands. The air, that all the
-afternoon had been so hot, was growing chill.
-
-“I’m sleepy,” Bob remarked, dropping upon the warm earth and stretching
-full length.
-
-“Well, you mustn’t go to sleep there,” Fitz replied.
-
-“Why?” the boy queried.
-
-“You’ll see why when it grows a little darker. Wild beasts will be
-prowling around here, after food and water.”
-
-“They will?” raising himself upon his elbow and glancing apprehensively
-around.
-
-“Yes, indeed,” the goblin answered.
-
-“Lions?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Leopards?”
-
-“Uh-huh.”
-
-“And hyenas and jackals?”
-
-The goblin nodded.
-
-“Well, where are we going to sleep, then?”
-
-“We’ll let the balloon rise to the level of the tops of these palm trees,
-tie it there, and sleep in the car.”
-
-“That’ll do. But I’ll bet we don’t get much sleep; the wild animals will
-raise such a rumpus, roaring and howling and fighting. Won’t they?”
-
-“It’s likely.”
-
-“Dear—dear! I wish I was back home.”
-
-“No, you don’t, Bob.”
-
-“I do, too. You promised to take me to Goblinland where everything was to
-be lovely; and you’ve got me away down here in the Sahara desert where
-there’s nothing but sand and wild beasts. And you’ve got me in such a fix
-I can’t eat a little fruit, even, without getting sick; and now I’m to
-have no sleep. Bah!”
-
-“That’s all that ails you, Bob.”
-
-“What?”
-
-“You’re sleepy—and cross.”
-
-“I’m not cross.”
-
-“Well—well, we won’t argue the matter.”
-
-“I’ll argue if I want to, old Epilepsy.”
-
-“Say, Bob,”—pleasantly.
-
-No reply.
-
-“Bob.”
-
-“Huh!”—ungraciously.
-
-“I think I know what we can do to send the wild animals about their
-business if they bother us.”
-
-“What?”—with a show of interest.
-
-“That is,” with a reflective shake of the head, “if we didn’t throw
-overboard, when we were about to sink in the Atlantic, the stuff we need.”
-
-“What is it, Fitz?”
-
-“Magnetic powder.”
-
-“There’s a bottle of it in the locker; I saw it there this morning. But
-what on earth are you going to do with it?”
-
-“I’ll tell you. I’m going to sprinkle some of it in the spring; and it’ll
-magnetize the water. Then any animal that comes for a drink will get
-a shock that will stir up its ideas—and send it flying. Won’t that be
-great?”
-
-“Great?” Bob cried, capering about in glee. “Yes, indeed, Fitz! And
-won’t it be funny to hear ’em and see ’em? I’m not a bit sleepy now.
-Let’s fix the spring right now.”
-
-Soon they had magnetized the spring, and had snuggled down in the car of
-their balloon, to spend the night. By that time it was quite dark; so
-they partook of a few food-tablets and drink-pellets, and then composed
-themselves to rest—out of reach of any beast that might come prowling
-around. Bob dropped into a doze. A roar like distant, muttering thunder
-roused him. He sat up and rubbed his eyes; then he nudged his sleeping
-companion.
-
-“Huh!” ejaculated Fitz, waking with a start.
-
-“I heard something roaring—sounded like thunder,” the boy explained.
-
-“Where?”
-
-“I don’t know; I wasn’t wide enough awake to tell. There—there it goes
-again.”
-
-“That’s a lion out on the sands,” chuckled the goblin; “he’s coming for a
-drink. Now the fun’ll begin, Bob.”
-
-“And listen! What are those other sounds, Fitz?”
-
-“Jackals barking and hyenas howling. They’re all coming at once. There’ll
-be a circus when they gather at the spring.”
-
-The two aëronauts giggled and shrugged their shoulders, in nervous but
-delicious expectancy. The moon made the night almost as light as day;
-but soon great dark shapes and shadows were to be seen approaching the
-oasis, from various directions. The lion roared defiantly, the jackals
-barked snappishly and the hyenas howled dolefully.
-
-“I see the lion,” Bob whispered excitedly. “There! He’s just coming in
-among the trees. But what’s that other animal creeping along away out
-there in the bright moonlight?”
-
-“A leopard,” Fitz replied.
-
-“And that pack of little fellows are jackals?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And those ugly scrawny ones are hyenas?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Oh, my!” the boy exclaimed gleefully. “Talk about a circus, Fitz; _I_
-call it a menagerie. This is a free show; and you and I have box seats.”
-Then thoughtfully, and with a little shiver, “And I’m mighty glad we
-have—and right above the ring. I—”
-
-He was interrupted by a roar that seemed to shake the slender fronds of
-the palm trees and rock the balloon. The lion was directly beneath them,
-smelling over the ground where they had been. The two small comrades
-cuddled close together upon the locker, held each other’s hands, and
-strained their eyes and ears to see and hear all that was going on.
-Presently the leopard, too, was among the trees and, like the lion, was
-nosing from one spot to another; and the jackals and hyenas had ranged
-themselves along the border of the little oasis, and were indulging in a
-discordant serenade.
-
-“Ugh!” the boy grunted in disgust. “Those cowardly things out there make
-me lonesome with their mournful sounds.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Me, too,” the goblin admitted, nodding. Then he whispered sharply:
-“There—there, Bob. The lion’s going to the spring. See him in that patch
-of moonlight?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And now he’s right at the edge of the water. See him—see him?”
-
-“Uh—huh. And there’s the leopard coming up on the other side.”
-
-The lion advanced majestically to the edge of the pool. He looked askance
-at his slender cousin, the leopard; and then he touched his nose to
-the clear water. Instantly he sprang backward, bristling, sneezing and
-shaking his head, in surprise and anger. The leopard looked on in wonder
-at her cousin’s strange behavior; and the lion glared fiercely at her.
-The two aëronauts hugged each other and laughed softly.
-
-Again the lion essayed to slake his burning thirst at the glassy pool;
-and again he retreated in rage and confusion. Attributing his trouble to
-the leopard, evidently, he made a vicious slap at her with his great paw.
-She sprang aside, spitting and snarling. The lion pursued her; and, to
-escape, she sprang upon the slender trunk of the palm tree to whose top
-the balloon was tied, and began a nimble and quick ascent.
-
-“Oo—h!” Bob gasped.
-
-“Murder!” croaked Fitz Mee.
-
-Then, instantly, he jumped from the locker; and opened and shut the valve
-of the air-tank, three or four times in quick succession.
-
-“Pst! pst! pst!” hissed the escaping air, and the leopard, more alarmed
-at the unknown danger above than at the known danger below, gave a yowl
-of fright and leaped to the ground and loped out of sight.
-
-Bob heaved a sigh of relief. “Fitz,” he whispered, “playing with wild
-beasts is like playing with fire; a fellow’s likely to burn his fingers.”
-
-The goblin nodded; then he jerked out:
-
-“But look at the lion! Bob, look at the lion!”
-
-The noble animal was not content to go without a drink; and once more he
-was drawing near the spring, cautiously, slowly. A third time his nose
-and tongue touched the water; and a third time he sprang back, startled
-and enraged. And this time he rashly spatted the surface of the pool with
-his paw, and let out a hoarse roar of futile rage, as the treacherous
-liquid sent a stream of electricity tingling through his anatomy.
-
-The two aëronauts were hunkered upon the locker, leaning far over the rim
-of the basket and laughing heartily but softly. On a sudden the goblin’s
-hands slipped and he fell headlong from the car—turning completely over
-in mid air and lighting plump astride the lion’s back!
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-THE BALLOONISTS ENCOUNTER ARABS
-
-
-Fitz Mee let out a frantic yell as he descended; Bob echoed it. “I’m a
-goner!” squeaked the goblin as he alighted on the lion’s back.
-
-“Goner!” screamed the boy, in unison.
-
-The lion, no doubt coupling the sudden arrival of the little green sprite
-with the unusual condition of the spring he had always known, went mad
-with fright. He stuck his tail between his hind legs, gave a snort,
-followed by a prolonged and doleful whine, and scampered away among the
-trees and across the sands of the desert, the goblin clinging to his mane.
-
-“Oh, dear—dear!” moaned the boy. “What am I to do? What _can_ I do?
-Poor old Fitz Mee! Poor old Convulsions! The lion’ll shake him off out
-there—and—and eat him up! And I can’t help him! I don’t dare to go to his
-aid; the other beasts would eat _me_! Was ever a boy in such a pickle!
-Oh, I wish I was back home! I do—I do! I was a fool to come on such a
-wild adventurous trip, anyhow! Poor old Fitz Mee! Poor old Epilepsy!
-Gone! Lost! And here I am down here in the desert—with miles of trackless
-sands all around me; and with no means of getting away—except an old
-balky balloon! Oh, dear—dear!”
-
-He wrung his hands and wept. At last, however, he muttered sleepily:
-“Poor unlucky old Fitz! He’s always getting into trouble and danger; he’s
-always tumbling out of the balloon. I’ve rescued him two or three times;
-but I can’t go on rescuing him every few hours. He’ll have to look out
-for himself this time; I can’t do anything for him. And,”—yawning,—“I’m
-so—so sleepy. I’ve just got to—sleep; that’s all—all—there is—”
-
-He sank upon the bottom of the car and lost all sense of his surroundings.
-
-“Bob! Oh, Bob!” Someone was calling him—someone in the far distance, he
-thought.
-
-“Huh!” ever so drowsily.
-
-“Bob! Bob Taylor! Wake up!”
-
-“Hel—hello!” the boy grunted.
-
-“Here! Wake up, you lazy pest! Do you hear me? Ah-hah! Do you _feel_ me?”
-
-“Ouch!”—petulantly—“Quit! Quit, I say!”
-
-Someone was twitching and pinching the lad’s ear. He stirred, opened his
-eyes, flounced over upon his stomach and raised his head. There stood the
-Little Green Goblin of Goblinville, grinning down at him.
-
-“Fitz!” the boy cried, springing to his feet and holding out his hand.
-
-“Fitz Mee!”
-
-The goblin continued to grin and bat his pop eyes—saucily, perversely.
-Daylight was just breaking.
-
-“When—when did you get back?” Bob inquired, embarrassed by his comrade’s
-manner.
-
-“Just got back, my friend,” Fitz croaked hoarsely; “and a time I’ve had
-getting you awake. I called and called from the ground, but you slept
-on. So I had to climb the tree; and then yell at you—and yell again and
-again, and shake you, and pinch you. You must have been greatly worried
-over my disappearance and danger! Oh, yes! Sure! You couldn’t sleep at
-all, you were so worried!”
-
-“Fitz, I _was_ worried,” the boy replied sheepishly.
-
-“Of course!” the goblin sneered. “That’s what I _said_—you were so
-worried you couldn’t _sleep_!”
-
-“You may say what you please,” Bob insisted, “but I was worried—worried
-like everything. I thought I’d never see you again.”
-
-“And no doubt you searched for me, seeking to rescue me from my perilous
-position!” Fitz continued sarcastically. “Why, to be sure you did! Oh,
-my!—yes, indeed!”
-
-“No, I didn’t hunt for you,” Bob returned thickly, a hint of tears in his
-voice.
-
-“You didn’t?” snappishly.
-
-“No.”
-
-“Well, _why_ didn’t you—huh?”
-
-“How could I, Fitz, with wild beasts all around me?”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Well,”—crustily,—“maybe there wasn’t wild beasts all around me! Hey, Bob
-Taylor!”
-
-“You’re unreasonable, Fitz!” angry now. “Of course, you were in danger.
-But what would have been the use of my rushing into danger when I
-couldn’t help you a bit by doing it? I couldn’t whip all those wild
-animals and snatch you away from them. Now, could I?”
-
-“No, I suppose you couldn’t,”—sullenly and rather reluctantly admitting
-the truth. “But it did make me _mad_, Bob, to find you sleeping so
-comfortably and soundly after the terrible time I’ve had.”
-
-“Did you have a bad time, Fitz?”
-
-“Did I? Well, I rather _guess_ I did!”
-
-“How far did the lion carry you?”
-
-“About a hundred miles.”
-
-“Oh, not that far!”
-
-“How do you know, smarty? _You_ weren’t there!”
-
-“Well—well! Maybe he did. But why didn’t you stop him before he went so
-far?”
-
-“Stop him! Bob Taylor, I just wish you’d have to take a ride on a lion
-once! Stop him! I _did_ try to. I yelled and yelled at him to stop; but
-he just went the faster.”
-
-“Well, why didn’t you let loose and roll off, then?”
-
-“Just because I _couldn’t_—that’s why.”
-
-“You _couldn’t_?”
-
-“No, I _couldn’t_!” irritably.
-
-“Why?”
-
-“Why? Bob, you’re foolish! Just because he went so fast I was afraid to
-let loose—afraid the fall might hurt me.”
-
-Bob laughed.
-
-“Laugh!” muttered Fitz, gritting his teeth. “You think you’re smart!”
-
-“But how did you get off? How did you get away from the lion?” the boy
-suggested.
-
-“He stumbled and fell—and threw me off.”
-
-“Oh!”
-
-“Uh-huh.”
-
-“Well, didn’t he try to eat you up, then?”
-
-“Eat me up? No, he was dead.”
-
-“Dead?”
-
-“That’s what I said.”
-
-“Why, what killed him?”
-
-“I don’t know; I didn’t stop to find out.”
-
-“What do you _think_ killed him?”
-
-“I think he just ran himself to death.”
-
-“Oh, Fitz!”
-
-“Or he was scared to death.”
-
-“Take care!”
-
-“Or died from heart disease.”
-
-“Fitz Mee, you’re yarning to me; you’ve been yarning to me about your
-adventure all the way through.”
-
-“Look here!” Fitz cried, grinning impishly. “Wasn’t I on the lion’s back
-the last you saw of me?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And wasn’t he carrying me off across the sands?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Well, haven’t I come back alive—without a hurt or scratch?”
-
-“Yes, I guess so.”
-
-“Well, then, you’ve no good reason to doubt my story. And, Bob, I can
-tell you something else—something that _will_ surprise you and test your
-credulity.”
-
-“Let’s hear it.”
-
-“How did I get back here—from a hundred miles away, do you suppose?”
-
-“I’ve no idea.”
-
-“I fell in with a caravan of Arabs, and they brought me.”
-
-“What!”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Where are the Arabs now?”
-
-“Right out there. See ’em?”
-
-Bob looked in the direction indicated. There, sure enough, was a number
-of Arabs with horses and camels rapidly approaching the oasis.
-
-The boy turned to his companion and murmured reproachfully: “Fitz, you’re
-a big story-teller—that’s what _you_ are. Just now you happened to see
-those Arabs, and you put them into your story. You’ve been spinning a big
-yarn to me. I’ll bet the lion didn’t carry you but a short distance out
-on the sands; then you came to your senses, got over your surprise, and
-rolled off and made your way back. I believe you’ve been here ever since
-shortly after I went to sleep. Now, haven’t you?”
-
-Fitz Mee grinned broadly; but would make no reply to the charge. Instead,
-he said:
-
-“Bob, we’d better be getting away from here. Those Arabs have been
-travelling all night, taking advantage of the cool air; and now they’ll
-spend the hot hours of the day under the trees of this oasis near this
-spring.”
-
-“My!” Bob ejaculated sharply.
-
-“What?” his companion asked, in keen concern.
-
-“I was just thinking about the spring—about its being charged with
-electricity.”
-
-“Whew!” whistled the goblin. “I hadn’t thought of that. We’d better get
-away from here before those Arabs discover what we’ve done to the spring,
-Bob. They’ll be mad when they find out; and they might shoot us with the
-long guns they carry. Sh! There comes one with a camel now.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The two aëronauts kept perfectly quiet. The Arab swiftly approached the
-spring, leading his camel and hugging an empty waterskin to his breast.
-The beast of burden tried to get at the tempting water, and its owner
-tried to keep it back, scolding and jerking at the halter-rope. But the
-camel succeeded in touching the water with its nose; and immediately
-it surged backward, coughing and shivering. The Arab, in an effort to
-control the frightened animal, chanced to set his foot in the edge of the
-pool. Then he gave a startled yell and danced about on one leg, grimacing
-and grunting. The whole thing was so funny that Bob could not restrain
-a snort of laughter. The Arab cast his gaze aloft. Then he yelled
-louder than before, dropped the halter-rope, and sped away to tell his
-companions of his wonderful experience and discovery.
-
-“You’ve played the mischief, Bob!” Fitz Mee grumbled, but grinning in
-spite of himself. “Untie that rope; let’s get out of here.”
-
-The boy was prompt to obey. Fitz released the air; and the balloon began
-to rise slowly, steadily, floating out over the shining sands. At that
-moment, however, the whole band of Arabs put in an appearance at the
-edge of the oasis; and, with shouts and imprecations, raised their guns
-and fired at the rising air-ship. The bullets whistled around the two
-adventurers, causing them to drop precipitately to the bottom of the car.
-
-“You hurt, Bob?” Fitz inquired.
-
-“No. You?”
-
-“No.”
-
-“Bully!”
-
-“That’s what _I_ say!”
-
-“But, Fitz, that was a close shave.”
-
-“Too close for comfort.”
-
-“Look here! One bullet went through the basket.”
-
-“Yes and look there! Another one went through the balloon-bag.”
-
-“They didn’t do any harm, though—eh?”
-
-“No.”
-
-“I’m glad they didn’t. And now I want to get out of this country; I’m
-tired of it.”
-
-“So am I. And I’ll set the needle north-east, for Goblinville; and away
-we’ll go. Hurrah!”
-
-“Hurrah!” the boy echoed.
-
-“Well—well!” the goblin mumbled irritably, fumbling at the selector.
-
-“What’s the matter _now_, Fitz?” Bob cried impatiently, stooping to
-ascertain the cause of his companion’s exclamatory remark.
-
-“The selector’s out of fix again, Bob. The needle won’t point any way but
-south.”
-
-“And—and, Fitz!”
-
-“Huh!” springing erect.
-
-“See how fast we’re going directly south.”
-
-“Yes,” nodding gravely, “and there’s hardly any power at all turned on.”
-
-“Shut it all off, Fitz.”
-
-“I will,” croaked the goblin. And he did so. Still the balloon slowly
-drifted southward.
-
-“What are we to do, Fitz?”
-
-“Indeed I don’t know,” the little green fellow answered dejectedly.
-
-“We’re going faster again.”
-
-“I see.”
-
-“Well, we’ve got to do some—” The boy broke off abruptly; then cried in
-great excitement: “Look! Look, Fitz!”
-
-“What?” screeched Fitz Mee, nervously dancing up and down. “What? Where?”
-
-“A mountain!” yelled Bob. “See it? Away to the south! A big shiny
-mountain!”
-
-“Yes!” moaned the goblin. “And that’s what’s drawing us!” He cast a
-despairing look behind them.
-
-“Why—why,” he jerked out, “Bob, the Arabs are following us!”
-
-“Oh, dear—dear!” muttered the boy. “Now we _are_ lost!”
-
-“We don’t dare to stop,” Fitz whimpered; “the Arabs’ll get us!”
-
-“And we don’t dare to go ahead,” Bob whined; “we’ll fly against the side
-of that mountain and burst ourselves all to pieces!”
-
-“Oh, dear!” groaned the goblin.
-
-“Oh, dear!” moaned the boy.
-
-“Bob!”
-
-“What, Fitz?”
-
-“Which would you rather—be eaten up by the Arabs, or bursted up by the
-mountain?”
-
-“Why, _neither_, you silly old thing!” pettishly.
-
-“We’ve got to choose, Bob.”
-
-“Well, we _haven’t!_”
-
-“What else can we do, Bob?”
-
-“I know!” brightly. “An idea has just come to me, Fitz.”
-
-“Oh! what is it, Bob?” joyfully.
-
-“You’ll see—in time. Stop the balloon.”
-
-“Bob, I _can’t_ stop it!”
-
-“That’s so. Well, pump up the tank and send the balloon to the ground.”
-
-“It’ll spill us out, Bob, at the rate we’re going.”
-
-“Let it spill!”—recklessly.
-
-“All right! Here goes!”
-
-Fitz worked industriously at the pump; and the air-ship began to drop
-swiftly. Soon it was within a few feet of the ground, flying along
-rapidly.
-
-“Hold on to the car when it strikes,” Bob cautioned his companion, “or
-the balloon, relieved of our weight, will fly up—and away from us.”
-
-“I understand,” Fitz replied.
-
-Bump! The car struck the earth, throwing its occupants sprawling; but
-they hung on. Bump! Bump! Then it dragged along the sand for some
-distance; and at last came to a stop.
-
-“Pump the air-tank up good and tight, Fitz,” Bob commanded; “we don’t
-want to lose our air-ship and be left out here in the desert.”
-
-“But the Arabs’ll get us, anyhow,” Fitz complained disconsolately. “There
-they come—only a few miles away!”
-
-“Let ’em come!” the boy cried gleefully. “They’ll be sorry! Let me have
-that hand-satchel.”
-
-“But what’re you going to _do_, Bob?”
-
-“Just wait and _see_!” was the tantalizing answer.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-A WIRELESS MESSAGE TO HEADQUARTERS
-
-
-The goblin silently handed the small black satchel to his comrade. The
-boy opened it and took out two of the tiny bottles, remarking as he did
-so:
-
-“I—I rather hate to do it; but I’ve got to—we’ve got to save ourselves.”
-
-“But what do you mean to do, Bob?” his companion insisted. “Tell
-me—before the Arabs get here.”
-
-The boy silently shook a few tablets into his palm from each of the two
-bottles. Then he queried:
-
-“Fitz, does the—the effect of these tablets—these gob-tabs—last forever?
-Tell me the truth.”
-
-“The effect lasts as long as the person eats goblin diet, Bob. That’s the
-reason I’ve insisted on your eating nothing else. See?”
-
-“Uh-huh.”
-
-“Well, now what’re you going to do?”
-
-“Going to give those Arabs some gob-tabs.”
-
-“How are you going to get them to take the gobs?” asked the little green
-sprite, grinning broadly.
-
-“You just watch me and see,” Bob replied complacently; “and do whatever I
-tell you to do.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“All right. But you’ve got some giant-tabs there, too. What are you going
-to do with those?”
-
-“You’ll see. Hist! Here come the Arabs. Now, don’t you hesitate to do
-what I tell you, Fitz.”
-
-“I won’t, Bob.”
-
-The Arabs, some on horses and others on camels, came galloping to the
-spot, raising a great cloud of sand. They formed in a circle round the
-two diminutive aëronauts and their balloon; and dismounted and stood
-silently, sullenly scowling.
-
-At last the sheik of the tribe advanced and said:
-
-“You two are devils. You’ve poisoned the spring where we drink and
-refresh ourselves and our beasts. You must die; we’re going to kill you.”
-
-Bob replied composedly: “Great sheik, we are magicians, not devils. We
-worked enchantment upon the spring, but did not poison it. As soon as
-the sun shines a few hours, the waters of the spring will again be pure
-and sweet—purer and sweeter than ever before. To convince you that we’re
-magicians, we’re ready to perform before you. See! I will make a giant of
-my green comrade.”
-
-The boy gave a giant-tab to the goblin and motioned him to swallow it.
-Unhesitatingly Fitz obeyed; and almost immediately he grew and swelled
-to gigantic size. With gestures and cries of amazement the Arabs drew
-back. Several of them touched their foreheads and muttered strange words;
-others prostrated themselves and hid their faces upon their extended
-arms. But the fierce old sheik gave no sign of wonder or fear. Instead,
-he said firmly, boldly:
-
-“Devils can work magic upon devils; but devils cannot work magic upon
-Allah’s elect. I’ll put you to the test; and if you fail,—as you
-will!—you die. Give me and my children of your magic medicine.”
-
-At a word from their sheik, the Arabs formed a line. Then the fierce old
-warrior of the desert said:
-
-“My children, these devils cannot injure you with their magic medicine.
-If they succeed in making giants of us, we shall then be able to overcome
-all our enemies; if they fail, we shall be as we are—and the devils
-shall die.” Then to Bob: “Give us of your devil drugs.”
-
-The boy stepped forward and dropped a gob-tab into the outstretched palm
-of each warrior. The sheik gave a signal; and twenty red mouths flew open
-and twenty gob-tabs disappeared. At the same moment Bob took a giant-tab.
-And a few minutes later two giants stood triumphantly grinning down upon
-twenty bearded and turbaned pygmies!
-
-“Now, sheik,” Bob roared briskly and cheerily, “no doubt you’re convinced
-that we’re what we claim to be—great magicians. But we don’t mean to work
-you any injury, now that we’re big and you’re small; although you meant
-to put us to death, just because _you_ were big and _we_ were small.
-You’ll come back to your natural size all right, in a few days. And we’re
-not going to rob you; just going to borrow two of your camels.”
-
-The sheik had stood silently staring at his diminutive warriors and
-inspecting his own shrunken limbs. But now he piped shrilly:
-
-“Allah is great! Allah is great! But what use can you have for our
-camels? You are so huge that they cannot bear you!”
-
-“Say!” Bob muttered in consternation. “Fitz, that’s a fact. What are we
-to do? I meant to take two of the camels to carry us and our balloon out
-of reach of the power of the magnetic mountain. What are we to do?”
-
-[Illustration: Two giants stood triumphantly grinning down upon twenty
-pygmies.]
-
-“I don’t know,” the goblin-giant grumbled surlily.
-
-“Well, can’t you think of some plan?”
-
-“You’re the one, Roberty-Boberty, that’s making the plans this time.” And
-Fitz Mee grinned a grin that made his big fat face look simply awful.
-
-“I know,” Bob admitted ruefully. “But won’t you help a fellow out, when
-he’s doing the best he can?”
-
-“Say, Bob!”
-
-“What?”—eagerly, expectantly.
-
-“I’ll tell you what! We’ll have to take gob-tabs and go back to goblin
-size. Then the camels can carry us.”
-
-“Yes, but we couldn’t manage the camels—couldn’t get on ’em, even,” the
-boy-giant objected. “Could we?”
-
-“I’m afraid we couldn’t,” the goblin-giant admitted, shaking his head. “I
-hadn’t thought of that.”
-
-“Oh, dear!” groaned Bob.
-
-“Oh, dear!” seconded Fitz.
-
-“Say!” squeaked the old sheik, looking up at the two giants. “What are we
-Arabs to do? We are so small we cannot mount and manage our beasts.”
-
-“I don’t know,” rumbled Bob.
-
-“And _I_ don’t know,” mumbled Fitz.
-
-“Well, you’re a nice pair of magicians—_you_ are!” screeched the sheik,
-pulling at his long beard. “Don’t you know anything you can do to help us
-out of our quandary?”
-
-Each giant sadly shook his big head.
-
-“Well,” the old sheik screeched, “I know what you’ve _got_ to do—you’ve
-got to give our beasts some of your magic medicine, and shrink ’em.”
-
-“Oh!” Bob ejaculated.
-
-“Oh!” Fitz exclaimed.
-
-“That’s a good idea,” the boy-giant remarked.
-
-“A splendid idea,” the goblin-giant agreed.
-
-“And we can give giant-tabs to the two camels we’re going to use,” Bob
-suggested.
-
-“Of course we can,” Fitz assented.
-
-“Well, here goes!”
-
-The two giants went to work. After repeated trials they succeeded in
-getting the camels and horses to swallow the magic medicine. All those
-animals to whom they gave gob-tabs shrunk to pygmy size; and the two
-camels to whom they administered giant-tabs grew to giant size. Then the
-old sheik and his bearded warriors, looking very dejected and forlorn,
-got upon their tiny beasts and rode away over the sands.
-
-Bob and Fitz lashed their balloon upon the back of one of the giant
-camels, and mounted and set out toward the north. All that day they
-traveled and far into the night, the great desert animals covering the
-ground rapidly. At last they stopped at an oasis; and there rested until
-morning. Then they tested the selector of the balloon and, to their
-unbounded delight, found it in perfect working order. They had got beyond
-the influence of the magnetic mountain.
-
-“Now,” said Bob, “we’ll take some gob-tabs and give some to the camels;
-then we’ll be all ready to take to the air again.”
-
-They carried out the plan thus expressed. When they were once more ready
-to embark upon the tenuous tide of the air, Fitz Mee remarked:
-
-“Now, I’ll telephone to Goblinland that we’re coming, that we’ll arrive
-there to-morrow.” He drew forth his wireless telephone, rang the tiny
-bell, and waited. Bob stood at his comrade’s side, alertly observant.
-Presently he saw the goblin give a start and heard him saying:
-
-“Hello! Hello! Is this Goblinland? It is, you say? All right. This is
-Fitz Mee. Yes, Fitz Mee. _Yes_, the Little Green Goblin. Uh-huh. Well,
-give me the mayor’s office. Yes—_yes_! the mayor’s office.”
-
-There was a momentary pause; and then:
-
-“Hello! Is this the mayor’s office in Goblinland? What? Huh? Is this the
-mayor’s office in Goblinland, I say? You can’t hear me? Well, I can’t
-hear _you_. I want to know if this is the mayor’s office in Goblinland.
-You say it is? Huh? Oh! All right. Well, is the mayor there? How’s that?
-Well, I want to speak to him, please.”
-
-Another momentary pause; and then:
-
-“Hello! _Hel_-lo, Hel-_lo_! Is this his honor, the mayor of Goblinland?
-It is? How’s that? It _isn’t_? How’s that? What? Huh?” Bob began to
-snicker. “Oh! All right. Well, mayor, this is Fitz Mee. Fitz Mee, I say.
-No—_no_! Fitz Mee. _No!_ Not _Swiss cheese!_”—Bob laughed outright; and
-the goblin scowled darkly. “F-i-t-z M-e-e, Fitz Mee. Oh! You understand
-now, do you? Well, I’ve got the boy. Yes. Why, I’ve been delayed by
-storms and misadventures. Yes. Yes, bad storms. We’ll get in to-morrow
-morning, I think. Hey? I—I know; but I hope your honor will pardon—what?
-Well, mayor, you don’t know what an awful time I’ve had with this boy.”
-Bob rolled upon the ground and roared. “Well, I’m very sorry. You’ll
-_what_—your honor? Please don’t say _that_! Oh! _don’t_ say that!” The
-goblin’s face had gone white, Bob observed; and the boy wondered what was
-the matter. “Yes, to—morrow morning. Good-bye.”
-
-Fitz Mee rang off, returned the instrument to his pocket, and dropped
-upon the ground, pale and panting.
-
-“What is it, what’s the matter, Fitz?” Bob inquired kindly.
-
-The goblin drew his knees up to his chin and rolled his pop eyes and
-waggled his big head; but made no answer.
-
-“What is it?” the boy repeated.
-
-Fitz moaned, but made no other reply.
-
-“Tell me,” Bob insisted.
-
-The goblin shook his head.
-
-“I don’t dare to, Bob,” he said.
-
-“Why don’t you?”
-
-“I just don’t—that’s all.”
-
-“Well, let’s be off. I’m anxious to get back home.”
-
-“Back home?” springing nimbly to his feet.
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Back _home_!”
-
-“That’s what I said.”
-
-“But, Bob, you’re not going back home.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“But I am.”
-
-“I say you’re _not_!”
-
-“And I say I _am_!”
-
-“Bob, you _can’t_!”
-
-“Fitz, I _can_!”
-
-“You _shan’t_!”
-
-“I _will_!”
-
-“You’re a spoiled, stubborn boy, Roberty-Boberty Taylor.”
-
-“And you’re a contrary old goblin, Mr. Epilepsy Spasms Convulsions Fitz
-Mee. Now!”
-
-“Bob, you ought to be ashamed to call a comrade naughty names.”
-
-“I _am_; but you called me names first.”
-
-“I know I did; and I’m sorry. But, Bob, why do you desire to go back
-home?”
-
-“Because I’m tired of being _away_ from home; because I’m tired of
-adventure.”
-
-“But you haven’t seen Goblinland yet.”
-
-“I don’t care; I don’t want to see it, I—I guess.”
-
-“Yes, you do. And you must go with me, Bob.”
-
-“Why must I?”
-
-“Because.”
-
-“Well, because what?”
-
-“I hate to tell you.”
-
-“Yes, tell me.”
-
-“Because my head will come off, if you don’t.”
-
-Bob started.
-
-“Is that what the mayor told you?” he inquired. “Is that what made you
-turn so pale?”
-
-The goblin nodded gravely; and said: “Yes, he said if I didn’t have you
-in Goblinland by to-morrow forenoon, he’d have my head cut off.”
-
-“Why, he’s a cruel old tyrant!” the boy cried hotly.
-
-“No, he isn’t,” the goblin protested; “he has to do what he said he’d
-do. It’s the law, you know; the law that when one agrees to do a certain
-thing by a certain time, he must do it or suffer death.”
-
-“Well, such a fool law!” Bob muttered testily. “I don’t want to go to a
-country that has such laws; and I won’t.”
-
-“Bob, remember—if you don’t go with me, I’ll be killed.”
-
-The boy was silent for some moments. Then he said:
-
-“Well, Fitz, I’ll go with you—to save your life; but I wish I hadn’t come
-with you at all.”
-
-A few minutes later they were again off for Goblinland.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-ARRIVED IN GOBLINLAND
-
-
-All that day and all that night the two daring adventurers traveled
-steadily and directly north-eastward, and at the dawn of the next
-day they were floating high over western China. The air was thin and
-penetrating and both were shivering with cold.
-
-Fitz Mee, standing upon the locker and watching the sunrise through the
-binocular, observed:
-
-“We’re almost to our journey’s end, Bob.”
-
-“Almost to Goblinland?” the boy queried.
-
-“Yes; I can see it.”
-
-“Where—where?” Bob cried eagerly, mounting to his comrade’s side.
-
-“See that mountain top a little to the left yonder?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Well, that’s Goblinland.”
-
-“Oo—h!” Bob muttered. “It must be a pretty cold place to live.” And his
-teeth chattered sympathetically at the thought.
-
-“No, it isn’t,” the goblin assured him. “You see Goblinland is really the
-crater of a volcano.”
-
-“The crater of a volcano?” said Bob, in mild consternation.
-
-“Yes,” Fitz laughed. “But you needn’t be alarmed, Bob; it’s an extinct
-volcano. Still the crust over it is so thin that the ground is always
-warm and the climate mild. Now we’re getting right over the place.
-Release the selector and pump up the air-tank; and we’ll soon cast anchor
-in port.”
-
-As they slowly descended Bob swept his eyes here and there, greedily
-taking in the scene. Goblinland was indeed the crater of an immense
-ancient volcano. The great pit was several miles in diameter and several
-hundred feet in depth, walled in by perpendicular cliffs of shiny,
-black, volcanic rock. Through the middle of this natural amphitheater
-ran a clear mountain brook; and on either side of the stream, near the
-center of the plain, were the rows of tiny stone houses constituting
-Goblinville. Shining white roadways wound here and there, graceful little
-bridges spanned the brook, and groves of green trees and beds of blooming
-flowers were everywhere.
-
-“How beautiful!” Bob exclaimed involuntarily.
-
-“Yes,” the goblin nodded, his eyes upon the village below, “to me, at
-least; it’s my home.”
-
-“I know now why you goblins always travel in balloons,” the lad remarked;
-“you can’t get out of your country in any other way.”
-
-Again Fitz Mee nodded absent-mindedly. Then he said: “My people are out
-to welcome us, Bob. Look down there in the public square.”
-
-The boy did as directed. “What a lot of ’em, Fitz!” he tittered
-gleefully. “And what bright-colored clothes they wear—red and green and
-blue and all colors!”
-
-“Yes,” Fitz Mee answered. Then, after a momentary pause: “The mayor will
-be present to greet us, Bob. He’ll make a speech; and you must be very
-polite and respectful. See them waving at us—and hear them cheering!”
-
-A few minutes later the balloon had touched the earth and eager hands had
-grasped the anchor-rope.
-
-“Hello! Hello, Fitz Mee! Welcome home, Fitz Mee!” were the hearty
-greetings that arose on all sides.
-
-Fitz Mee stepped to the ground, bowing and smiling, and Bob silently
-followed his example. The balloon was dragged away and the populace
-closed in upon the new arrivals, elbowing and jostling one another and
-chuckling and cackling immoderately.
-
-“Shake!” they cried. “Give us a wag of your paw, Fitz Mee! Shake, Bob
-Taylor!”
-
-There were goblins great and goblins small, goblins short and goblins
-tall; goblins fat and goblins lean, goblins red and goblins green;
-goblins young and goblins old, goblins timid, goblins bold; goblins dark
-and goblins fair—goblins, goblins everywhere!
-
-Bob was much amused at their cries and antics and just a little
-frightened at their exuberant friendliness. Fitz Mee shook hands with all
-comers, and chuckled and giggled good-naturedly.
-
-“Out of the way!” blustered a hoarse voice. “Out of the way for his
-honor, the mayor!”
-
-A squad of rotund and husky goblins, in blue police uniforms and
-armed with maces, came forcing in their way through the packed crowd.
-Immediately behind them was the mayor, a pursy, wrinkled old fellow
-wearing a long robe of purple velvet. The officers cleared a space for
-him, and he advanced and said pompously:
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Welcome, Fitz Mee, known the world over as the Little Green Goblin of
-Goblinville. I proclaim you the bravest, if not the speediest, messenger
-and minister Goblinland has ever known. Again, welcome home; and welcome
-to your friend and comrade, Master Robert Taylor of Yankeeland. I trust
-that he will find his stay among us pleasant, and that he will in no way
-cause us to regret that we have made the experiment of admitting a human
-being—and a boy at that!—to the sacred precincts of Goblinville. The
-freedom of the country and the keys of the city shall be his. Once more,
-a sincere and cordial welcome.”
-
-Then to the officers: “Disperse the populace, and two of you escort the
-Honorable Fitz Mee and his companion to their dwelling-place, that they
-may seek the rest they greatly need after so arduous a journey.”
-
-The officers promptly and energetically carried out the orders of their
-chief.
-
-When Fitz and Bob were alone in the former’s house, the latter remarked:
-
-“Fitz, I believe I’ll like to live in Goblinville.”
-
-“I—I hope you will, Bob,” was the rather disappointing reply.
-
-“Hope I will? Don’t you think I will, Fitz?”
-
-“I don’t know; boys are curious animals.”
-
-“Well, I think I will. You know you said I could do as I pleased here.”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Say, Fitz?”
-
-“Well.”
-
-“How does it come that you goblins speak my language?”
-
-“We speak any language—all languages.”
-
-“You do?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Why, how do you learn so many?”
-
-“We don’t have to learn ’em; we just know ’em naturally—as we know
-everything else we know at all.”
-
-“My, that’s great! You don’t have to go to school, not study, nor
-anything, do you?”
-
-“No.”
-
-“I wish I was a goblin.”
-
-“But you’re not,” laughed Fitz Mee; “and you never will be.”
-
-“But I’ll be a man some day, and that will be better.”
-
-“Maybe you will.”
-
-“Maybe?”
-
-“You’ll never be a man if you stay in Goblinland.”
-
-“I won’t?”
-
-“No.”
-
-“Won’t I ever grow any?”
-
-“Not as long as you stay in Goblinland—and eat our kind of food.”
-
-“Well, I’ll get older, and then I’ll be a man, or a goblin, or
-something—won’t I?”
-
-“You’ll still be a boy.”
-
-“Pshaw!” Bob pouted. “I don’t like that. You told me I could be what I
-pleased in Goblinland.”
-
-“No, I didn’t,” Fitz Mee returned quietly but firmly. “I told you that in
-our country boys—meaning goblin boys, of course—were compelled to do what
-pleased them and were not permitted to do what pleased others. That law
-or custom is still in effect; and you, as a human boy, will be subject to
-it.”
-
-“And I can do anything that pleases me?”
-
-“You can’t do anything else.”
-
-“Good!” Bob shouted gleefully. “I guess I’ll like Goblinland all right;
-and I don’t care if I do stay a boy. Am I the first human boy that ever
-got into your country, Fitz?”
-
-“You’re the first human being of any kind that ever set foot in
-Goblinland.”
-
-“Is that so? Well, I’ll try not to make your people sorry you brought me
-here, Fitz.”
-
-“That’s all right, Bob,” his companion made reply, a little dejectedly,
-the boy thought. “And what would you like to do first—now that you are in
-a land that is absolutely new to you?”
-
-“Fitz, I’d like to take a good long sleep.”
-
-“That would please you?”
-
-“Yes, indeed.”
-
-“More than anything else, for the present?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“All right. Off to bed you go. You’ll find a couch in the next room. Go
-in there and tumble down.”
-
-“I will pretty soon.”
-
-“But you must go now.”
-
-“Must go now? Why?”
-
-“Because it’s the law in Goblinland that a boy shall do what he
-pleases—and at once.”
-
-“Well, I won’t go to bed till I get ready, Fitz.”
-
-“You don’t mean to defy the law, do you, Bob?”
-
-“Doggone such an old law!” the lad muttered peevishly.
-
-Fitz Mee giggled and held his sides and rocked to and fro.
-
-“What’s the matter of you, anyhow?” Bob cried crossly.
-
-His comrade continued to laugh, his knees drawn up to his chin, his fat
-face convulsed.
-
-“Old Giggle-box!” the boy stormed. “You think you’re smart—making fun of
-me.”
-
-Fitz Mee grew grave at once.
-
-“Bob,” he said soberly, “you’ll get into trouble, and you’ll get me into
-trouble.”
-
-“I don’t care.”
-
-“Go to bed at once, that’s a good boy.”
-
-“I won’t do it.”
-
-Just then the outer door opened and a uniformed officer stepped into the
-room.
-
-“His honor, the mayor, begs me to say,” he gravely announced, “that as
-Master Robert Taylor has said that he would be pleased to sleep, he must
-go to sleep—and at once. His honor trusts that Master Taylor will respect
-and obey the law of the land, without further warning.”
-
-The officer bowed and turned and left the house.
-
-“Well, I declare!” Bob gasped, completely taken aback. “What kind of a
-country is this, anyhow?”
-
-Fitz Mee tumbled to the floor, and rolled and roared.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The ludicrousness of the situation appealed to the fun-loving Bob, and he
-joined in his companion’s merriment. Together they wallowed and kicked
-upon the floor, prodding each other in the ribs and indulging in other
-rude antics indicative of their exuberant glee.
-
-When they had their laugh out Bob remarked:
-
-“Well, I’ll go to bed, Fitz, just to obey the law; but I don’t suppose I
-can snooze a bit.”
-
-Contrary to his expectations, however, the lad, really wearier than he
-realized, soon fell asleep. He slept through the day and far into the
-hours of darkness; and it was almost dawn of the next day when he awoke.
-He quietly arose and began to inspect his surroundings. A soft white
-radiance flooded the room. He drew aside the window-blind and peeped out.
-Darkness reigned, but bright lights twinkled here and there. He dropped
-the blind and again turned his attention to the things within.
-
-“I wonder if Fitz is awake,” he mumbled; “I’m hungry. I suppose he slept
-on the couch in the next room. I wonder where all this brightness comes
-from; I don’t see a lamp of any kind. Huh! It comes from that funny
-little black thing on the stand there. What kind of lamp can it be—hey?”
-
-He walked over and looked at the strange object—a small perforated
-cone, from the many holes of which the white light streamed. Noticing a
-projecting button near the top of the black cone, he made hold to touch
-it and give it a slight turn. Instantly the holes had closed and the room
-was in darkness. He turned the button back again; and the holes were open
-and the room was light as day.
-
-“Well, that beats _me_!” muttered Bob. “It looks like an electric light;
-but I don’t see any wires. There aren’t any wires. I must find Fitz and
-learn about this thing.”
-
-He peeped into the adjoining room, which was in darkness, and called:
-
-“Fitz! Oh, Fitz! Are you asleep, Fitz?”
-
-“Huh?” was the startled reply. “Yes—no, I guess so—I guess not, I mean.”
-
-Bob laughed.
-
-“Well, get up and come in here,” he said.
-
-“Why, it isn’t morning yet,” the goblin objected.
-
-“I’ve had my sleep out, anyhow.”
-
-“_I_ haven’t.”
-
-“Well, get up and come in here, won’t you?”
-
-“I suppose I might as well,” grumbled Fitz; “you won’t let me sleep any
-more.”
-
-Then, appearing in the doorway and rubbing his pop eyes and blinking:
-“Now, what do you want?”
-
-“First, I want to know what kind of a light this is,” indicating the
-little black cone.
-
-“Why, it’s an electric light, of course,” Fitz Mee made answer, in a tone
-that showed his wonder and surprise that Bob should ask such a question.
-
-“I don’t see how it can be, I don’t see any wires.”
-
-“Wires?” chuckled Fitz. “We don’t need any wires.”
-
-“Well, where does the electricity come from, then?”
-
-“From the bug under the cone.”
-
-“The bug?”
-
-“Yes, the electric firefly. Didn’t you ever see one?”
-
-Bob shook his head—half in negation, half in incredulity.
-
-“Well, I guess they’re peculiar to Goblinland, then,” Fitz went on,
-grinning impishly. “We raise them here by thousands and use them for
-lighting purposes. The electric firefly is a great bug. Like the electric
-eel, it gives one a shock if he touches it; and like the ordinary
-firefly, it sheds light—but electric light, and very bright. I’ll show
-you.” He gingerly lifted the perforated cone.
-
-There lay a bug, sure enough, a bug about the size of a hickory-nut, and
-so scintillant, so bright, that the eye could hardly gaze upon it.
-
-“And this is the only kind of light you have in Goblinland, Fitz?” the
-boy asked.
-
-“Yes. We light our houses, our streets, our factories, our mines,
-everything with them.”
-
-“Wonderful!” Bob exclaimed. “And what do you do for fire, for heat?”
-
-“We don’t need heat for our dwellings. Owing to the fact that our
-country is protected from all cold winds by the high cliffs around it,
-and that the earth crust is thin over the fires of the volcano below, the
-temperature remains about eighty the year round. Then, we don’t cook any
-crude, nasty food, as you humans do; so—”
-
-“No, you live on pills,” Bob interjected, in a tone of scorn and disgust.
-“Bah!”
-
-“So,” Fitz Mee went on smoothly, unheeding his comrade’s splenetic
-interruption, “all we need heat for is in running our factories. For that
-we bore down to the internal fire of the earth.”
-
-“Well—well!” Bob ejaculated. “You do?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Well, where are your factories, Fitz? I didn’t see anything that looked
-like factories when we got out of the balloon.”
-
-“They’re all in caverns hewed in the cliffs.”
-
-“And the fire you use comes from ’way down in the ground?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And you light your factories with electric fireflies?”
-
-The goblin gravely nodded. Bob was thoughtfully silent for a moment; then
-he remarked:
-
-“It must be awfully hot work in your factories—the men shut up in caves,
-and no fresh air.”
-
-“We have plenty of fresh air in our works,” Fitz hastened to make plain;
-“we have large funnel-shaped tubes running up to the mountain-tops. The
-cold wind pours down through them, and we can turn it on or off at our
-pleasure.”
-
-“Say!” Bob cried.
-
-“What?” queried his companion.
-
-“I’d like to go through your factories.”
-
-“You mean what you say, Bob?”
-
-“Mean what I say?” said Bob, in surprise bordering on indignation. “Of
-course I do.”
-
-“That you’d like to go through our factories?”
-
-“Certainly. Why not?”
-
-“When do you want to make the—the experiment—the effort?”
-
-“To-day—right away, soon as we’ve had something to eat.”
-
-“All right, Bob,”—with a smile and a shake of the head,—“but—”
-
-“But what?”
-
-“Nothing. We’ll have breakfast and be off. It’s coming daylight, and the
-factories will be running full blast in an hour from now.”
-
-“More pills for breakfast, I reckon,” Bob grumbled surlily.
-
-“More tablets and pellets,” Fitz Mee grinned, rubbing his hands together
-and rolling his pop eyes.
-
-“Huh!” the boy grunted ungraciously. “I wish you folks cooked and ate
-food like civilized people. I’m getting tired of nothing but pills. I
-can’t stand it very long—that’s all.”
-
-“You’ll get used to it,” the goblin said, consolingly.
-
-“Used to it!” the boy snorted angrily. “Yes, I’ll get used to it like
-the old man’s cow got used to living on sawdust; about the time she was
-getting used to it she died.” But he accepted the pellets and tablets his
-companion offered him, and meekly swallowed them. Then they caught up
-their caps and left the house.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-IN THE LAND WHERE YOU DO AS YOU PLEASE
-
-
-Bob and his comrade went straight to the mayor’s office; and to that
-august official Fitz Mee said:
-
-“Your honor, Master Taylor wishes to go through our factories.”
-
-“So I’ve heard,” the mayor answered grimly, “but could hardly credit my
-ears.” Then to Bob: “Master Taylor, is this true that I hear: that you
-desire to go through our factories?”
-
-“Yes, sir,” Bob replied respectfully but sturdily, rather wondering,
-however, why such an ado should be made over so small a matter.
-
-“Very well, Fitz Mee,” said the mayor to that worthy, “I’ll depend upon
-you to see that Master Taylor goes through our factories; and I’ll hold
-you responsible for any trouble that may arise. Here’s your permit.”
-
-When the two were out of the mayor’s presence and on their way to the
-factories, Bob remarked:
-
-“Fitz, how did the mayor learn that I want to go through your
-machine-shops and places?”
-
-“He heard us talking.”
-
-“Heard us talking?”
-
-“Yes. There’s a wireless telephone instrument in the room where we were,
-an automatic one that catches every sound.”
-
-“Oh!”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“And what did the mayor mean by saying he’d hold you responsible for any
-trouble that might arise?”
-
-“Oh, nothing—nothing!” Fitz Mee answered hastily and grumpily.
-
-The boy questioned his companion no further, and soon they crossed one of
-the picturesque bridges spanning the brook, ascended a long, gentle slope
-to the base of the black cliffs, and stood before a wide, nail-studded
-door. To the officers on guard Fitz Mee presented the mayor’s permit. The
-guard deliberately and carefully read the slip of paper, then he lifted
-his brows, drew down the corners of his mouth and grunted pompously:
-
-“Fitz Mee, you’re aware of the import of this official document, are you?”
-
-Fitz Mee nodded gravely, grimly, and Bob looked from one to the other in
-silent wonder.
-
-[Illustration: Bob and his comrade went straight to the mayor’s office.]
-
-The guard went on: “This permit of his honor, the mayor, says that not
-only is Master Robert Taylor, the friend and comrade of the honorable
-Fitz Mee, hereby permitted to go through our factories, but by the same
-token is _compelled_ to go through them, this being his expressed desire
-and pleasure; and that the honorable Fitz Mee shall be held responsible
-for any trouble that may thereby arise. That’s all right, is it, Fitz
-Mee?”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“It’s all right,” Fitz Mee muttered sullenly, but determinedly.
-
-“Pass in,” said the officer, unbolting the door and dragging it open.
-
-As soon as the two had stepped over the sill, the door was slammed shut
-behind them, and Bob heard the great bolts shot into place—and shuddered
-in spite of himself. On each side of him were smooth, solid walls of
-rock: ahead of him stretched a dusky corridor dimly lighted with electric
-fireflies suspended here and there. The dull rumble of distant machinery
-came to his ears; the faint smell of smoke and sulphurous fumes greeted
-him.
-
-“Fitz?” the lad said to his comrade, who stood silent at his side.
-
-The goblin simply gave the speaker a look in reply.
-
-“Fitz,” Bob continued, “what’s the meaning of all this talk about my
-going through the factories? What’s the matter, anyhow?”
-
-“Nothing—nothing!” Fitz murmured hoarsely, shiftily gazing here and there.
-
-“Yes, there is,” the boy insisted. “Why do you all emphasize the word
-‘through’?”
-
-“Why—why,” Fitz stammered, rubbing his nose and blinking his pop eyes,
-“we thought maybe you didn’t mean that you desired to go _through_ the
-factories; thought maybe you meant you desired to go _partly_ through
-only—just wanted to see _some_ of the things.”
-
-“No,” Bob hastily made reply, “I want to go through; I want to see
-everything. Understand?”
-
-Fitz nodded.
-
-“Well, come on, then,” he said; “we’ve got to be moving.”
-
-As they went along the corridor, Bob became aware of doors ahead opening
-to right and left. He saw the flash of flames and heard the whirr of
-wheels and the hub-bub of hammers.
-
-“This room to the right,” said Fitz Mee, “is the machine-shop; that on
-the left is the forging-room.”
-
-They visited each in turn, and the lad was delighted with all he saw.
-
-“He! he!” he laughed when they were again out in the corridor and free
-from the thunder and crash and din that had almost deafened them. “The
-idea, Fitz, of me not wanting to go through your factories; of not
-wanting to see everything! You bet I want to go through! You thought I’d
-be afraid—that’s what _you_ thought; and the mayor, too. But I’ll show
-you; I’m no baby—not much!”
-
-His companion grinned impishly, but made no reply.
-
-The next place they entered was the great moulding-room. Open cupolas
-were pouring forth white-hot streams of molten metal, which half-nude and
-sweaty, grimy goblins were catching in ladles and bearing here and there.
-The temperature of the room was almost unbearable; the atmosphere was
-poisonous with sulphurous gases. Bob crossed the threshold and stopped.
-
-“Come on,” commanded his companion; “we must hurry along, or we won’t get
-through to-day.”
-
-“I—I don’t believe I care to go through here,” Bob said hesitatingly.
-
-“Why?” Fitz Mee jerked out.
-
-“It’s so awful hot and smelly,” the boy explained; “and I’m—I’m a little
-afraid of all that hot metal.”
-
-“No matter; you must go through here.”
-
-“I _must_?” Bob cried indignantly.
-
-“Certainly. You said you’d be pleased to go through our factories; so
-now you must go through—through every apartment. Boys in Goblinville, you
-know, must do what pleases ’em.”
-
-“But it doesn’t please me to go through this fiery furnace, Fitz.”
-
-“Well, boys’re not allowed to change their minds every few minutes in
-Goblinville. Come on.”
-
-“I won’t!” Bob said obstinately.
-
-“You’ll get into trouble, Bob.”
-
-“I don’t care.”
-
-“And you’ll get _me_ into trouble.”
-
-“You into trouble? How?”
-
-“You heard what the mayor said, didn’t you?”
-
-“Y-e-s.”
-
-“Well?”
-
-“Well, I’ll go through for your sake, Fitz; but I don’t want to. It is a
-fool law or custom—or whatever it is—that won’t let a fellow change his
-mind once in a while, when he feels like it! A great way that is to let a
-boy do what he pleases! But lead on.”
-
-They sauntered through the moulding—room, Bob trembling and dodging and
-blinking, and out into the corridor again.
-
-“Mercy!” the urchin exclaimed, inhaling a deep breath of relief. “I don’t
-want any more of that! I’m all in a sweat and a tremble; I was afraid all
-the time some of that hot metal would splash on me.”
-
-“It does splash on the workers at times,” Fitz Mee observed quietly.
-
-Not heeding his companion’s remark, Bob continued: “And my lungs feel
-all stuffy. I couldn’t stand such a hot and smelly place more than a few
-minutes.”
-
-“How do you suppose the moulders stand it for ten hours a day?” Fitz
-asked.
-
-“I don’t see how they do—and I don’t see _why_ they do,” the boy replied.
-
-“You don’t see why they do?”
-
-“No, I don’t.”
-
-“For the same reason workmen stand disagreeable and dangerous kinds of
-work in your country, Bob; to earn a living.”
-
-“I wouldn’t do it,” the boy declared loftily.
-
-“You might have to, were you a grown man or goblin.”
-
-“Well, I wouldn’t. My papa doesn’t have to do anything of the kind.”
-
-“Your father’s a physician, isn’t he?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Well, doesn’t he miss meals, and lose sleep, and worry over his
-patients, and work sometimes for weeks at a time without rest or peace of
-mind?”
-
-“Yes, he does.”
-
-“But you’d rather do that than be a common laborer for eight or ten hours
-a day, would you?”
-
-“I—I don’t know; I’d rather just be a boy and have fun all the time. And
-I guess I’ve seen enough of your factories, Fitz; I want to get out into
-the fresh air and sunshine again.”
-
-“You must go on through,” the goblin answered, quietly but positively.
-
-“Well, have we seen nearly all there is to see?”
-
-“No, we’ve just begun; we haven’t seen one-tenth part yet.”
-
-“Oh, dear!” Bob groaned. “I never can stand it, Fitz; it’ll take us all
-day.”
-
-“Yes,” the goblin nodded.
-
-“Well, I tell you I can’t stand it.”
-
-“But you must; it was your choice.”
-
-“Choice!” angrily. “I didn’t know What it would be like.”
-
-“You shouldn’t have chosen so rashly. Come on.”
-
-Bob demurred and pleaded, and whimpered a little, it must be confessed;
-but his guide was inexorable.
-
-It is not necessary to enter into details in regard to all the boy saw,
-experienced and learned. Let it suffice to say that at three o’clock
-that afternoon he was completely worn out with strenuous sight-seeing.
-The grating, rumbling, thundering sounds had made his head ache; the
-sights and smells had made his heart sick. He had seen goblins, goblins,
-goblins—goblins sooty and grimed, goblins wizened and old before their
-time; goblins grinding out their lives in the cutlery factory; goblins
-inhaling poisonous fumes in the chemical works; goblins, like beasts of
-burden, staggering under heavy loads; goblins doing this thing, that
-thing and the other thing, that played havoc with their health and
-shortened their lives. And he was disgusted—nauseated with it all!
-
-“Oh, Fitz!” he groaned. “I can’t go another step; I can’t stand it to see
-any more! I thought it would be pleasant; but—oh, dear!”
-
-“Sit down here and rest a minute,” Fitz Mee said, not unkindly,
-indicating a rough bench against the wall of the corridor. “Now, why
-can’t you bear to see any more?”
-
-“Oh, it’s so awful!” the boy moaned. “I can’t bear to see ’em toiling and
-suffering, to see ’em so dirty and wretched.”
-
-The goblin laughed outright.
-
-“Bob, you’re a precious donkey!” he cried. “True, the workers in the
-factories toil hard at dirty work—work that shortens their lives in
-some cases; but they’re inured to it, and they don’t mind it as much as
-you think. And what would you? All labor is hard, if one but thinks so;
-there are no soft snaps, if one does his duty. It’s the way of the goblin
-world, and it’s the way of the human world. All must labor, all must
-suffer more or less; there’s no escape for the highest or the lowest. And
-work has its compensation, has its reward; it—”
-
-“Oh, shut up!” the lad muttered petulantly. “I don’t want to hear any
-more. You talk just like my papa does. I wish I’d never been born, if
-I’ve got to grow up and work. So there!”
-
-“You’ll never grow up, if you stay in Goblinville, Bob,” Fitz Mee said
-softly; but his pop eyes were twinkling humorously. “And you won’t have
-to work—not much, anyhow.”
-
-Bob sat soberly silent; evidently he was doing some deep thinking.
-
-The goblin went on: “If you’re rested now, we’ll resume our sight-seeing.”
-
-“I don’t want to see any more,” the lad grunted pugnaciously; “and I’m
-not going to, either.”
-
-“Yes, come on.”
-
-“I won’t do it.”
-
-“Please do, Bob.”
-
-“I won’t, I say.”
-
-“You’ll get us both into trouble.”
-
-“I don’t care if I do.”
-
-“They’ll send us to prison.”
-
-“What!”
-
-“They will.”
-
-“Who will?”
-
-“The mayor and his officers.”
-
-“Send us both?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Well,” bristling, “I guess they won’t send _me_—the old meddlers! They
-won’t dare to; I’m not a citizen of this country.”
-
-“That won’t make any difference, Bob!”
-
-“It will too. If they send me to prison, the people of my country will
-come over here and—and lick ’em out of their boots. Now!”
-
-Fitz Mee bent double and stamped about the floor, laughing till the tears
-ran down his fat cheeks. But suddenly he sobered and said:
-
-“Come on, Bob; you’ve got to.”
-
-“I won’t!” the boy declared perversely. “I _don’t_ have to.”
-
-The goblin made no further plea; but placing a silver whistle to his
-lips blew a sharp blast. In answer, a squad of officers stepped from the
-shadows.
-
-“What’s wanted, Fitz Mee?” said the leader.
-
-“This boy flatly refuses to obey the law, to go on through the factories,
-as he stated would please him.”
-
-“Boy, is this true?” demanded the officer.
-
-“Yes, it is,” Bob confessed fearlessly, shamelessly.
-
-“Fitz Mee, he confesses,” muttered the officer. “What would you have me
-do?”
-
-“Take him and carry him through,” Fitz Mee said icily.
-
-“Very well,” answered the officer. “But if we do that we take the case
-out of your hands, Fitz Mee. And in order to make a satisfactory report
-to the mayor, we’ll have to carry him through all the factories—those he
-has already visited as well as those he has not.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Yes, that’s true,” Fitz nodded.
-
-“What’s that?” Bob cried, keenly concerned.
-
-The officer gravely repeated his statement.
-
-“Oh, nonsense!” the boy exclaimed. “You fellows go away and quit
-bothering me. I never saw such a country! A fine place for a boy to do as
-he pleases, surely! Come on, Fitz.”
-
-All the goblins laughed heartily, and Bob disrespectfully made faces at
-them, to their increased amusement.
-
-When the two comrades had made their round of the factories, and were out
-in the fresh air again, the boy murmured meekly, a sob in his throat:
-
-“Fitz, I’m tired—I’m sick of it all! I wish I hadn’t come here, I—I wish
-I was back home again.”
-
-“What!” his companion cried in assumed surprise.
-
-“I do!”
-
-“Back home, and be compelled to obey your elders—your parents and your
-teachers?” Fitz Mee said, grinning and winking impishly.
-
-“Well,”—pettishly,—“it wouldn’t be any worse than being compelled to obey
-a lot of fool officers, anyhow.”
-
-“You’re just compelled to do what pleases you, just as I told you,” Fitz
-Mee explained smoothly.
-
-“Oh, do shut up!” the lad pouted.
-
-“You’re out of sorts,” the goblin giggled; “you’re hungry—you need some
-food tablets.”
-
-“Bah!” Bob gagged. “Pills! I can’t swallow any more of ’em—I just can’t!
-Oh, I wish I had a good supper like mother cooks!”
-
-Fitz Mee threw himself prone and kicked and pounded the earth, laughing
-and whooping boisterously; and Bob stood and stared at him, in silent
-disapproval and disgust.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-BEFORE THE MAYOR OF GOBLINLAND
-
-
-As the days passed Bob became more and more disgruntled, more and more
-dissatisfied with things in Goblinville. The bare thought of food-tablets
-and drink-pellets disgusted and nauseated him; and he could hardly
-swallow them at all. The young goblins would not, could not, play the
-games he liked to play. They were too small for one reason; and, then,
-as it did not please them to do so, they were not permitted to do so.
-And the boy was without youthful companionship. The only associates he
-had were his faithful companion Fitz Mee and the officers of the town,
-who were always at his elbow to see that he did what pleased him. This
-constant espionage became simply unbearable; and the lad grew peevish,
-gloomy; desperate. At last he broke down and tearfully confessed to his
-comrade:
-
-“Fitz, I want to go back home; I do—I do! I can’t stand it here any
-longer. It isn’t at all what I thought it would be like; and I’m
-homesick!”
-
-Fitz Mee did not laugh; he did not smile, even. On the contrary he looked
-very grave—and a little sad.
-
-“So you’re homesick, Bob—eh?” he said.
-
-“Yes, I am, Fitz.”
-
-“And you desire to go home?”
-
-“Uh-huh.”
-
-“You don’t like things here in Goblinville?”
-
-“No, I don’t.”
-
-“What is it you object to?”
-
-“Oh, everything!”
-
-“But especially?”
-
-“Well, the—the pills, I guess.”
-
-“Oh!” joyfully. “Is that all, Bob? We can fix that all right. I’ll get a
-special permit from the mayor—he’s a political friend of mine,—to let me
-prepare you food like you’ve been accustomed to. Then you’ll be as happy
-as a clam, won’t you?”
-
-“I—I don’t hardly know, Fitz; no, I don’t think I will.”
-
-“What!”
-
-“Uk-uh.”
-
-“Well, what else is wrong, then?”
-
-The goblin’s pop eyes were dancing with mischief.
-
-“I don’t like to be compelled to do what pleases me,” Bob confessed
-shamefacedly.
-
-“Ho, ho!” laughed Fitz Mee.
-
-“Oh, you can laugh!” the boy cried, in weak irritation. “But I don’t!”
-
-“You said it would just suit you, Bob—before you came here,” Fitz
-chuckled hoarsely, holding his sides and rocking to and fro.
-
-“I know I did; but I’d never tried it.”
-
-“And you don’t like it?”
-
-“No, indeed,” Bob answered very earnestly.
-
-“And you’re homesick, and want to go home?”
-
-The boy nodded, his eyes downcast.
-
-“All the goblins’ll laugh at you, if you go to leave Goblinville.”
-
-“Well, let ’em; I don’t care.”
-
-“And your people and your schoolmates will laugh at you, when you return
-home.”
-
-Bob was silent, deeply pondering.
-
-“Don’t you care?” Fitz Mee asked, cackling explosively.
-
-“Yes, I do! But I’ve got to go, anyhow; I’ll die here.”
-
-“Oh, no, you won’t, Bob,” said the goblin, teasingly.
-
-“I will, too,” said Bob, desperately in earnest; “I know.”
-
-“You’ll have to go to school, if you return home.”
-
-“I don’t mind that; I’ll have other boys to play with, anyhow.”
-
-“Yes, but you’ll have to obey the teacher.”
-
-“I know.”
-
-“And you’ll have to do what pleases your parents.”
-
-“I know that, too.”
-
-“And you won’t be permitted to do what pleases yourself.”
-
-“I know; I’ve thought it all over, Fitz.”
-
-“And yet you wish to return home?”
-
-“Yes, I do.”
-
-Fitz Mee laughed gleefully, uproariously, irrationally, laughed till the
-tears coursed down his cheeks and his fat features were all a-quiver.
-
-“Ho, ho!” he gasped at last. “Roberty-Boberty, you’re not the same boy
-you were, not at all; you’re not half as high and mighty. What’s come
-over you, hey?”
-
-“I’ve—I’ve learned something, I—I guess, Fitz.”
-
-“Oh, you have!”
-
-“Uh-huh.”
-
-“What?”
-
-“I’m not going to say,” replied Bob, grinning sheepishly; “but I think I
-know what you brought me to Goblinland for.”
-
-“What for?”
-
-“W-e-ll, to—to teach me what I’ve learned. Didn’t you?”
-
-“I’m not going to say,” mimicked the goblin.
-
-Then both tittered.
-
-“And you’re bound to go back home, Bob?” Fitz pursued.
-
-The boy nodded.
-
-[Illustration: “If you’re rested now, we’ll resume our sight-seeing.”
-(See page 168.)]
-
-“You’re a pretty looking thing to go back to Yankeeland—a little mite of
-a human like you!” sneeringly.
-
-“Oh, Fitz!” the lad wailed. “Can’t I be made a real boy again?”
-
-The goblin impressively shook his head.
-
-“I don’t know,” he said slowly. “You see you’ve taken so many gob-tabs
-it’s very doubtful whether you can be changed back into a boy at all.”
-
-“Oh, Fitz, don’t say that!”—greatly distressed.
-
-“Of course, if you were put on human diet for a long time, you might come
-out all right,”—reflectively.
-
-“But can’t I take something that will change me quick—right away?”
-
-Again the goblin shook his head.
-
-“I doubt it,” he murmured. “Giant-tabs would make a giant of you; and you
-don’t want to be a giant.”
-
-“No, I don’t.”
-
-“Well, I guess, then, if you want to go back home right away, you’ll have
-to go just as you are.”
-
-“Oh, Fitz!” almost blubbering. “I don’t want to go back home this way;
-I just can’t! Can’t you give me something that will—will stretch me and
-swell me to boy size—just to boy size? Can’t you—can’t you?”
-
-“I don’t know,”—with a gloomy shake of the head; “I never heard of such
-a drug or chemical, but it’s barely possible our chemists may know of
-something of the kind. I’ll see about it. But here’s a difficulty.”
-
-“What? What, Fitz?”
-
-“Why, as you know, there’s no means of getting out of Goblinland except
-by balloon; and I doubt if my balloon will carry you at full and normal
-weight.”
-
-“But can’t you get a bigger one?”
-
-“I might have one made; I don’t—”
-
-“Oh, no—no, Fitz!” the boy interrupted frantically. “Don’t think of doing
-that; I can’t wait. Can’t you borrow a bigger one?”
-
-“There are no bigger ones, except the mayor’s state balloon. It has two
-feather beds lashed together for a bag, and a very large car.”
-
-“Can’t you get it—can’t you get it, Fitz?”
-
-“I don’t know, indeed. Then, here’s another difficulty, Bob, and a
-greater one to my mind.”
-
-“Oh, Fitz!” the boy moaned, wringing his hands. “You don’t mean it!”
-
-“Yes, I do,” said the goblin, nodding gravely; but his twinkling pop eyes
-belied his words. “You see, Bob, you’re the first human being that has
-ever come to Goblinland. Now, the secrets of the country—including the
-secret of its whereabouts, have always been carefully guarded. I don’t
-know what his honor, the mayor, will say about letting you go.”
-
-“I won’t tell anything, Fitz, I won’t—I won’t!”
-
-“Not a thing?” questioned Fitz Mee.
-
-“No, sir—not a thing.”
-
-“W-e-ll, I—I don’t know. What will you do, Bob, if the mayor won’t let
-you go back home?”
-
-“I’ll just die—that’s what!”
-
-The goblin slapped his thin thighs and laughed and whooped, and laughed
-some more.
-
-Out of patience, the lad screamed: “Laugh! Laugh till you burst, you old
-Convulsions! You old Spasms! You old Hysterics! Yeah! Yeah!”
-
-And Fitz Mee did laugh—till he was entirely out of breath and panting and
-wheezing like a bellows. When at last he had regained control of himself,
-he whispered brokenly:
-
-“Bob, we’ll—we’ll go and see—the mayor.”
-
-And they caught up their caps and were off.
-
-“So you wish to go home, boy—eh?” said the mayor, the august ruler of
-Goblinville and all adjacent territory, as soon as the two were ushered
-into his presence.
-
-“Yes, sir,” Bob answered humbly. Then, with boyish inquisitiveness: “But
-how did you know it?”
-
-“Never mind,” was the gruff reply. “It will please you to return home
-will it?”
-
-“Yes, sir, indeed it will.”
-
-“Then you must go. Be off at once.”
-
-“But—but—” Bob began.
-
-“I’ll fix all that,” his honor interrupted, quickly divining what the boy
-meant to say. “I’m as anxious to be rid of you as you are to be gone.
-You’ve stirred up a pretty rumpus here—_you_ have. You’re the first human
-boy that ever came into my domain; and you’ll be the last. But I trust
-your experience has done you good—eh?”
-
-Bob nodded.
-
-“Very well, then. Sign this pledge that you won’t reveal what you’ve seen
-and learned, and that you’ll take the lesson to heart.”
-
-Bob gladly signed the pledge.
-
-“Now,” continued the mayor, his eyes snapping humorously, “these are
-the conditions under which you must leave my domain: I’ll call in
-the chemists and have them restore you to normal size; I’ve already
-communicated with them, and they assure me they can do it. Then I’ll
-let the honorable and worthy Fitz Mee take my state balloon and carry
-you back to Yankeeland. You will set out this afternoon at one o’clock.
-But one other thing I exact: you must bear nothing away with you that
-you did not bring here with you.” And the mayor gave the boy a keen,
-meaningful look that the urchin could not interpret.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-The chemists came in, three aged and bewhiskered goblins wearing long,
-black robes and silk skull caps.
-
-“My good chemists,” said the mayor, “are you ready for the experiment?”
-
-“All ready, your honor,” the eldest of the three made answer, bowing
-profoundly.
-
-“To work, then,” the mayor commanded.
-
-The younger two advanced and caught and held Bob’s hands, their fingers
-upon his pulse. The eldest produced a tiny phial of thick, opalescent
-liquid.
-
-“Put out your tongue,” he said to the boy.
-
-The lad unhesitatingly obeyed, and the aged and trembling chemist let a
-drop of the viscid liquid fall upon the tip of the youngster’s quivering
-organ of speech.
-
-The effect was instantaneous and startling, if not marvelous. Bob let
-out a mad bellow of pain, shaking his head and writhing and drooling.
-The mayor changed countenance and deprecatingly shook his head. Fitz Mee
-groaned aloud.
-
-“Draw in your tongue and shut your mouth and swallow!” the three savants
-simultaneously yelled at the boy.
-
-Bob reluctantly did as he was told; and immediately, instantaneously he
-was restored to normal size.
-
-“Whoopee!” shouted the chemists, embracing one another and indulging in
-mad capers and other manifestations of insane joy. “A success! A complete
-success!”
-
-“Thank goodness!” murmured Fitz Mee. “A success!”
-
-“Yes,” the mayor muttered drily, grimly, “a remarkable success—a _too_
-remarkable success! My good chemists, destroy what you have left of that
-stuff, and make no more at your peril. I’m not going to have any more
-_boys_ manufactured in this country—a noisy, disturbing lot! You hear
-me!” Then to Fitz Mee: “You take your departure from the public square
-at one o’clock, remember. The state balloon will be there in readiness.
-You’re excused.”
-
-When the two comrades were again at Fitz Mee’s residence, Bob remarked
-ingenuously:
-
-“Fitz, while you’re getting ready I’m going to gather up some of the gold
-nuggets I saw on the shore of the brook.”
-
-“Better not,” Fitz replied, without looking up from his work.
-
-“Why?”
-
-“I wouldn’t, if I were you—that’s all.”
-
-“Well, why?”
-
-“They’re not yours.”
-
-“I know. But you goblins make no use of them; and it wouldn’t be
-wrong—wouldn’t be stealing, would it?”
-
-“No,” Fitz Mee mumbled, “it wouldn’t be robbery, exactly. But you heard
-what the mayor said.”
-
-“What about?”
-
-“That you weren’t to take anything away with you that you didn’t bring
-here with you.”
-
-“Yes, I heard him. Is that what he meant?”
-
-“To be sure.”
-
-“Well, why does he object to my taking a few old nuggets of gold that
-none of you will use?” said Bob peevishly.
-
-“For this reason, Bob: you take that gold back to Yankeeland, and tell
-where you got it—”
-
-“But I won’t tell where I got it,” the lad interrupted.
-
-Unheeding, the goblin continued: “And your money-mad people will search
-out our country and conquer and ruin us.”
-
-“Oh, pshaw, Fitz!”
-
-“What I say is true, Bob.”
-
-But Bob was neither convinced nor satisfied, and he resolved to have the
-nuggets at all hazard. Where was the harm? The gold was of no value to
-the goblins; it would be of great value to him. And he wouldn’t say a
-word about where he got it—indeed he wouldn’t. He would take it; and no
-one would be the wiser or the poorer. So, while his comrade was busy at
-other things, he slipped out to the brookside and filled his pockets.
-
-One o’clock came, the time of departure, and all Goblinville, including
-the mayor and his officers, was out to see the aëronauts off upon their
-long voyage. The mayor shook hands with the two and wished them God-speed
-and the populace gave them three hearty cheers.
-
-Then the anchor was weighed, and they were off. Slowly and majestically
-the great state balloon began to ascend. But when it had risen a
-hundred feet, Bob, looking over the side of the car, became aware of a
-disturbance in the crowd beneath. He saw goblins excitedly running this
-way and that and a number of officers trundling a big black object on
-wheels across the public square.
-
-“What’s the meaning of the rumpus, Fitz?” the lad cried to his companion.
-“What’s that the officers have?”
-
-“Why,” Fitz gasped, taking a hurried look beneath, “the officers are
-running out the dynamite gun!”
-
-“And they’re training it upon our balloon—upon _us_!” Bob whispered
-hoarsely, his soul a prey to guilty fear. “What—what can it mean, Fitz?”
-
-Then arose the voice of the mayor, bellowing:
-
-“Fitz Mee, descend! Come back! That boy can’t leave Goblinland with his
-pockets full of gold! He has deceived us; he can’t leave Goblinland at
-all. Come down; or we’ll send a dynamite shell through the balloon-bag,
-and bring you down in a hurry.”
-
-Fitz gave a few strokes to the pump, and the big balloon came to a stop.
-Bob sat silent, speechless at the dread result of his rash act.
-
-“You’ve played the mischief—_you_ have, Bob Taylor!” his companion
-snarled angrily, reproachfully. “And you’ll spend the balance of your
-days in Goblinland—that’s what!”
-
-“Oh, dear!” the boy found voice to moan. “Oh, dear!”
-
-“Hello!” Fitz called over the side of the car. “Hello, your honor!”
-
-“Hello!” answered the mayor.
-
-“If I’ll make the boy throw the gold down to you, will that satisfy you?”
-
-“No, it won’t!” came the hoarse and determined reply. “Bring the young
-scamp back! He shall stay in Goblinville!”
-
-“I guess I won’t!” Bob shouted, desperation spurring his courage. And he
-sprang to the air-tank and opened the cock. The balloon began to rise
-swiftly.
-
-“Oh, Bob—Bob!” Fitz Mee groaned. “What have you done? We’ll both be
-killed!”
-
-“Boom!” went the dynamite gun; and a shell tore through the balloon-bag,
-rending it asunder and sending goose feathers fluttering in all
-directions.
-
-The car began to drop like a plummet. Its occupants let it out shrill
-screeches of terror. Then came the proverbial dull, sickening thud! Bob
-felt the empty balloon—bag fall over him and envelop him; and then he
-lost consciousness.
-
-“Bob, crawl out of there.”
-
-[Illustration]
-
-“Fitz! Fitz!” the boy cried, disentangling himself and struggling to his
-feet.
-
-“Fits!” laughed a big manly voice. “Yes, I guess you’ve got ’em, Bob; and
-you’ve rolled out of bed in one, and dragged the covers with you.”
-
-Bob blinked and rubbed his sleepy eyes. There stood his father in the
-doorway, grinning broadly;
-
-“Hustle into your clothes, laddie,” he said; “breakfast’s ready.”
-
-[Illustration: THE END.]
-
-
-
-***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE GREEN GOBLIN***
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