"SO!" roared the great seaman angrily. "So, you don't trust us, eh? Well, stay here if you wish and grow up like a monkey. You look like a little wild man already."
"STOP!" Nikobo quivered all over with resentment. "You must not call Tandy a wild man."
"Don't mind." The boy drew the leopard skin around him with quiet dignity. "I can bear it. I have borne far worse. I can bear anything. I am a KING and the son of a King's son! Tell them to go away, Kobo."
"Now, Now, NOW! This is nothing but nonsense." Ato clapped his hands sharply. "However we look, my young squab, you are in good and royal company. My mate here, Captain Salt, is Captain of the Crescent Moon, Royal Explorer of Oz, and a Knight, besides. I, though at present a ship's cook, am King of the Octagon Isle, and Roger, here, is as Royal a Read Bird as ever wagged a bill and wing. If you say you are a King, we will have to believe you, though 'tis hardly credible." Ato stared with round eyes at the matted hair and dirty body of the little prisoner. "If you say you are a King we must believe you, but in return you must believe us, and stop all this hoity toity talk and clishmaclatter."
"He speaks the plain truth." Nikobo pressed her huge snout close to the bars. "Even I can detect the signs of royalty in this fat and goodly person whom I just this morning helped out of the river. You must go with them, Tandy, and they will carry you back to your own Kingdom."
"But I tell you, I'd rather stay here with YOU," wailed the little boy, relaxing a moment from his kingly and overbearing attitude.
"Roger, fetch the AX." Samuel Salt spoke so loud and sternly Nikobo lapsed into a shocked silence and Tandy hastily drew back into a far corner of his cage.
"Never argue with a sea-going man," whispered Ato, winking solemnly as Roger flew off to obey Samuel's order. Having settled the matter in his own mind, Samuel turned his back on Tandy and began to examine with deep interest the fungus growth on one of the gnarled old trees. "So you really are a King?" Leaning against the huge body of Nikobo, Ato folded his hands comfortably on his stomach and regarded the boy in the leopard skin earnestly. "Now what country do you hail from and what do they call you at home?"
"I am Tazander Tazah of Ozamaland," announced the boy proudly, "the land of the creeping bird and flying reptile. Ozamaland on the long continent of Tarara is my home."