So this Marmaduke did, just as he had been told. He tapped on the
ground three times with his right foot, three times with his left, and
three times more, standing on his head, and all under Choo Choo Choo's
very nose, for, of course, that was the very place where Marmaduke
wanted the earthquake to come.

Choo Choo Choo must have been fooled, for he stopped patting the snake
made of pennies, and sharpening his fingernails, and the soldiers
ceased whetting their swords. They thought Marmaduke was performing
circus tricks for their entertainment.

As soon as he was through standing on his head, he had run away, of
course, to get out of the way of the earthquake which he knew would
come. But the robbers thought he was just running back to his
dressing-room, as all acrobats do, and would come back again for his
bow. But he didn't. And after five minutes, just as the Coal Giant had
promised, there came a great roar and a mighty tremble, and Choo Choo
Choo and all his soldiers were blown up in the air, and when they came
down they fell on their heads and knocked their brains out. Then
Marmaduke came back--to find them all dead--stone dead.

And he thought it was very kind of the Coal Giant in the Pit in the
center of the Earth to help him out with that little favor.

But now all the million tea-Chinamen, who had seen the great
happening, fell down on their knees. They thought Marmaduke must have
come from Heaven, to work such wonders.

So they dressed him all up in a blue mandarin's coat, which they found
in the palanquin. It was covered with pretty snakes, all embroidered