“Do you know how to work that Magic Umbrella?” he asked the Majordomo.

“No, your Majesty, I do not,” was the reply.

“Well, find out.  Make the Whiteskins tell you so that I can use it for my own amusement.”

“I’ll do my best, your Majesty,” said Ghip-Ghisizzle.

“You’ll do more than that, or I’ll have you patched!” roared the angry Boolooroo.  “And don’t waste any time, either, for as soon as we find out the secret of the umbrella I’m going to have the three strangers marched through the Arch of Phinis, and that will be the end of them.”

“You can’t do that, your Majesty,” said the Majordomo.

“Why can’t I?”

“They haven’t lived six hundred years yet, and only those who have lived that length of time are allowed to march through the Arch of Phinis into the Great Blue Grotto.”

The King looked at him with a sneer.  “Has anyone ever come out of that Arch alive?” he asked.

“No,” said Ghip-ghisizzle, “but no one has ever gone into the Blue Grotto until his allotted time was up.”

“Well, I’m going to try the experiment,” declared the Boolooroo.  “I shall march these three strangers through the Arch, and if by chance they come out alive, I’ll do a new sort of patching—­I’ll chop off their heads and mix ’em up, putting the wrong head on each of ’em.  Ha, ha!  Won’t it be funny to see the old Moonface’s head on the little girl?  Ho, ho!  I really hope they’ll come out of the Great Blue Grotto alive!”

“I also hope they will,” replied Ghip-Ghisizzle.

“Then I’ll bet you four buttonholes they don’t.  I’ve a suspicion that once they enter the Great Blue Grotto that’s the last of them.”

Ghip-Ghisizzle went away quite sad and unhappy.  He did not approve the way the strangers were being treated and thought it was wicked and cruel to try to destroy them.

During his absence, the prisoners had been talking together very earnestly.  “We must get away from here somehow ’r other,” said Cap’n Bill, “but o’ course we can’t stir a step without the Magic Umbrel.”

“No, I must surely manage to get my umbrella first,” said Button-Bright.

“Do it quick, then,” urged Trot, “for I can’t stand those snubnoses much longer.”

“I’ll do it tonight,” said the boy.

“The sooner, the better, my lad,” remarked the sailor, “but seein’ as the Blue Boolooroo has locked it up in his Treasure Chamber, it mayn’t be easy to get hold of.”

“No, it won’t be easy,” Button-Bright admitted.  “But it has to be done, Cap’n Bill, and there’s no use waiting any longer.  No one here likes us, and in a few days they may make an end of us.”

“Oh, Button-Bright!  There’s a Blue Wolf in the Treasure Chamber!” exclaimed Trot.

“Yes, I know.”

“An’ a patched man on guard outside,” Cap’n Bill reminded him.

“I know,” repeated Button-Bright.

“And the key’s in the King’s own pocket,” added Trot despairingly.