"Run up and down a bit," advised Ato, sliding down from Nikobo's back. "Your legs must need stretching. Wonder if there's anything to eat around here or hereabouts? Aha, those look like oranges, a wild orange grove, as I'm a cook and a seaman. Come along, young one, and help me gather a few."
"A King and son of a King's son does not come and go at another's bidding," announced Tandy, stiffly, alighting from the hippopotamus.
"Merciful mothers! What's this?" gasped Ato, blinking his eyes rapidly. "As complete a case of ingrowing Royalitis as I've ever had the misfortune to encounter. Well, since it's every King for himself, then I'll be leaving you, sonny and son of a King's sonny. Watch out for him, Kobo, he's probably real important to himself."
"You should not speak like that," reproved the hippopotamus as Ato disappeared into the orange grove, "after all, the big and fat one is himself a King."
"Pooh, King of some potty little island," sniffed Tandy, leaning wearily against a palm. "Break me a cocoanut, Kobo, I'm thirsty." With a discouraged sigh Nikobo trod on one of the cocoanuts, cracking it from end to end and then, because she was a generous and kindly creature, she cracked several more for Ato when he should return. Sitting back on her haunches, she anxiously watched while Tandy downed the cocoanut milk, then, stretching out in the sand, fell unconcernedly asleep. Thus Ato found them when he emerged from the orange grove an hour later. His elegant explorer's cape was knotted to form a sack and bursting full of the small sweet fruit of the wild orange trees.
"These will make us a fine mess of marmalade when I get back to the ship," panted the perspiring monarch, settling down with his back cozily to Nikobo's. "How's young Saucebox?"
"All right." The hippopotamus nodded in Tandy's direction. "He is so small and tired," she murmured worriedly, "and you must know he has been exposed in an open cage in the jungle for five long months with only a miserable hippopotamus for company."
"Miserable hippopotamus," snorted Ato indignantly. "You're a very superior animal, my girl. I'd consider it an honor to converse with you any day. Did you crack these cocoanuts for me?" As Nikobo, trying bashfully to conceal her pleasure at Ato's praise, admitted she had, the King took several long, satisfying draughts from the shells. "Now, don't you worry about that young sprout," he advised kindly as Nikobo continued to gaze mournfully at the sleeping boy. "We'll make allowances for his High and Mighty Littleness and set him down in his own country. That is, if we ever manage to find it, though I must say he'll not be much use nor company for us. Ahoy! Here comes Sammy. Wonder what he's found?" As a matter of fact, the Royal Explorer of Oz looked more like a walking window box than a seaman. Long vines hung from his neck and trailed from his pockets. His arms were crammed with spiked and prickly plants and on his head he balanced a package of sea shells tied up in his shore-going coat.
"What you going to do, start a conservatory?" roared Ato as Roger helped the Captain set his treasures on the ground.