"Aha! Then it will be some time before they
arrive," said Ruggedo, "and when they get here
I shall be ready to receive them.
He rushed to his gong and pounded upon it so
fiercely that Kaliko came bounding into the cavern
with one shoe off and one shoe on, for he was just
dressing himself after a swim in the hot bubbling
lake of the Underground Kingdom.
"Kaliko, those invaders whom we threw down
the Tube are coming back again!" he exclaimed.
"I thought they would," said the Royal
Chamberlain, pulling on the other shoe. "Tititi-Hoo-choo
would not allow them to remain in his
kingdom, of course, and so I've been expecting
them back for some time. That was a very foolish
action of yours, Rug."
"What, to throw them down the Tube?"
"Yes. Tititi-Hoochoo has forbidden us to throw
even rubbish into the Tube."
"Pooh! what do I care for the Jinjin?" asked
Ruggedo scornfully. "He never leaves his own
kingdom, which is on the other side of the world."
"True; but he might send some one through
the Tube to punish you," suggested Kaliko.
"I'd like to see him do it! Who could conquer my
thousands of nomes?"
"Why, they've been conquered before, if I
remember aright," answered Kaliko with a grin.
"Once I saw you running from a little girl named
Dorothy, and her friends, as if you were really
afraid."
"Well, I was afraid, that time," admitted the
Nome King, with a deep sigh, "for Dorothy had a
Yellow Hen that laid eggs!"
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