Then came a message for Knops. A council was awaiting his presence; so,
leaving Leo to Paz, with promise of a speedy return, he departed.
"How do you get about so fast?" asked Leo. Paz took from his pocket a
tiny pipe, curiously carved from a nut; then he opened a small ivory
box, showing Leo a wad of something which looked like raw cotton
sprinkled with black seeds.
"One whiff of this, as it burns in my pipe, and I can wish myself where
I please."
"Let me have a try," said Leo, taking up the pipe.
Paz smiled. "It would have no more effect upon you than so much
tobacco--not as much, probably, for tobacco makes you deathly sick, does
it not?"
"Yes," said Leo, listlessly, disappointed that he could not go to the
ends of the earth by magic.
Paz noticed the disappointment, and said, by way of diversion, "Where do
you like best to be?"
"At home I like the kitchen," said Leo, with a little shrug.
"Good! Come, then, to one of ours: we can be back by the time Master
Knops returns." So saying, he started off, and Leo followed.
Paz trotted down a winding staircase that made Leo feel as if he were a
corkscrew, and in a little while ushered him into a place where jets of
gas gave a garden-like effect, sprouting as they did from solid rock in
the form of tulips and tiger-lilies, but over each was a wire netting,
and from the netting were suspended shining little copper kettles and
pans of all sorts and shapes.
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