"Come on, Hank!" called the girl, and the
donkey tried to obey. He managed to bound
pretty high but when he tried to bound across
the stream he misjudged the distance and fell
with a splash into the middle of the water.
"Hee-haw!" he wailed, struggling toward the
far bank. Betsy rushed forward to help him out,
but when the mule stood safely beside her she
was amazed to find he was not wet at all.
"It's dry water," said Polychrome, dipping her
hand into the stream and showing how the water
fell from it and left it perfectly dry.
"In that case," returned Betsy, "they can all
walk through the water."
She called to Ozga and Shaggy to wade across,
assuring them the water was shallow and would not
wet them. At once they followed her advice,
avoiding the rubber stepping stones, and made the
crossing with ease. This encouraged the entire
party to wade through the dry water, and in a few
minutes all had assembled on the bank and renewed
their journey along the path that led to the Nome
King's dominions.
When Kaliko again looked through his magic
spyglass he exclaimed:
"Bad luck, Your Majesty! All the invaders have
passed the Rubber Country and now are fast
approaching the entrance to your caverns."
Ruggedo raved and stormed at the news and his
anger was so great that several times, as he
strode up and down his jeweled cavern, he paused
to kick Kaliko upon his shins, which were so
sensitive that the poor nome howled with pain.
Finally the King said:
"There's no help for it; we must drop these
audacious invaders down the Hollow Tube.
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