Before Kabumpo or Pompa realized what this would mean a little Candleman named Tommy Tallow had returned with a tall black candle person. He stepped to the side wall, quickly jerked a rope and down over Kabumpo dropped a great brass snuffer and over the Prince another.
“That ought to put the cross old things out,” Pompa heard the King say just before his snuffer reached the floor.
“This is terrible,” fumed the poor Prince, thumping on the sides of the huge brass dome. “I might as well have stayed at home and disappeared comfortably. My poor old father and my mother! I wonder where they are now?”
Sunk in gloomy reflection, Pompadore leaned against the side of the snuffer. And one cannot blame him for feeling dismal. The fall down the deep passage, the shock of losing his hair and now imprisonment under a stifling brass dome were enough to extinguish the hopes of the stoutest hearted adventurer.
“I shall never find a Proper Princess!” wailed Pompa, tying and untying his handkerchief. But just then there was a creak from without and the great dome lifted as suddenly as it had fallen—so suddenly in fact that Pompa fell flat on his back. There stood Kabumpo winding up the long rope with his trunk and grumbling furiously all the while.
“Takes more than a snuffer to keep me down,” wheezed the Elegant Elephant, hurrying over and jerking the Prince to his feet. “Three humps of my shoulders and off she goes! What makes it so dark?”
“The Candlemen have all gone,” sighed Pompa, brushing his hand wearily across his forehead. “All except that one.”
In a distant corner sat Tommy Tallow and the light from his head was the only light in the great chamber. He was reading a book with tin leaves and looked up in surprise when he saw the Elegant Elephant and Pompadore approaching. Then he started to sputter and ran toward a bell rope at the side of the chamber.
“Stop!” shouted Kabumpo, “or I’ll blow off your head!” At that the little Candleman trembled so violently that his flame head almost went out.
“Now suppose you show us the way out,” snapped the Elegant Elephant, stamping one big foot until the floor trembled.