Like a flash Nick darted down and set Bob on a huge boulder. Then, with wings spread, he flew up and down, intending, if possible, to break Notta’s fall with his own feathery body. But Notta and the Cowardly Lion never did finish their fall-for as they whizzed past a tall, craggy rock, jutting out from the side of a mountain, a stone arm reached out and miraculously caught the rope that held them together.
“Scrags and scrivets! What kind of birds are these?” cried a grating voice, and down from the
ledge stepped a roughly hewn man of stone. Swinging Notta and the Cowardly Lion easily in one hand, he came crunching toward Nick and Bob.
CHAPTER 17 The Stone Man of Oz
BOB put his arm around Snorer’s neck, and Nick, clapping his nose on its hook, prepared to fly from this new danger. Dangling from his end of the rope, Notta sighed mournfully to think he had not disguised himself, and the Cowardly Lion, after one look at the stone hand that held them, closed his eyes and began to tremble violently. The Stone Man was about three times the size of an ordinary man and carved out of a huge block of granite. His features, though rough hewn, were not unpleasant and Notta, after a few false starts, ventured a remark.
“It was very kind of you to catch us,” faltered the clown.
“It wasn’t kindness; it was curiosity,” rasped the Stone Man frankly. “I’ve been watching you fall for some time, and I must say you’re the oddest looking creatures I’ve seen in a stone age.
As he said this, the Stone Man placed them on a flat rock that was on a level with his nose. And as he could not sit down, he leaned up against another rock and regarded them inquisitively.
“Come on up here,” he called gruffly to Snorer, “and bring that little fellow with you.” Rather reluctantly, Nick flew up with Bob, and the four fallers tried to compose themselves and catch a bit of the breath they had lost on the trip down. The stone eyes of the Stone Man rested longest on the Cowardly Lion. “I like you best,” he remarked presently. “You’re better made than these others and not so likely to crumble. They look too soft to last long.” He poked his stone finger experimentally into Notta’s ribs, and only the clown’s disguises saved him from serious injury.
“Don’t do that,” growled the Cowardly Lion sharply.
“What a lovely voice,” mused the Stone Man almost to himself. “Tell me, what are you?”
“I’m a Cowardly Lion,” roared the big beast huskily, “so don’t frighten me, for if you do I’ll pound you to pebbles.”
“I don’t believe he could do it,” creaked the Stone Man, turning to Notta. “Do you?”
“Well, he’s a terrible fighter,” admitted the clown, with a reassuring wink at Bob, “but let’s not talk of such disagreeable things. Since you were kind enough to catch us perhaps you will tell us who you are.
“Crunch is my name,” answered the Stone Man, picking up a rock and crumbling it to powder in his hand.
“I think we’d better be going,” quavered Snorer tremulously. “We’re late as it is.” Nick had no desire to fall into the Stone Man’s clutches.
“Don’t go,” begged Crunch. “I haven’t talked to anyone since I was excavated.”
“How long ago was that?” asked Notta, scratching his ear.
“Oh, several ages ago,” replied the Stone Man carelessly. “But I’m much older than that, for I was hacked out by a primitive Oz man to decorate this cave. But a landslide caved in the cave and I was buried for several centuries.”
“Who dug you up,” roared the Cowardly Lion, “and how is it you are alive?”
“A wizard named Wam dug me up,” explained Crunch in his scratchy voice, “and brought me to life with a shaker of magic powder. I tried to thank him, but he ran away before I could catch him, so I’ve stood around ever since trying to find out what one does with a life.”
“Great Grandfathers!” choked the clown. “Fancy being alive for centuries and not knowing what to do. Why, there are hundreds of things to interest you, especially in a magic country like Oz.
You could travel, and help other folks not so strong as yourself. You could offer your services to the Queen, or even build a city!”
“Could I?” gasped Crunch. He stared off into space as if he saw himself doing all these things, and the idea was almost too amazing to believe. Then, bringing his stone heels together with a click, he announced determinedly, “I’ll do it! I’ll travel, I’ll help people, I’ll see the Queen and build a city!”
“Hurrah!” cried Notta. “That’s the way to talk. And since we are traveling, why not join us?” Crunch, he decided, might prove useful in a battle.
“Can I walk beside him?” asked the Stone Man, pointing at the Cowardly Lion.
“If you’re steady on your pins,” rumbled the Cowardly Lion, “and promise not to fall on me.
“Where does the Queen of this country live?” asked Crunch, after he had promised not to fall on the Cowardly Lion.
“In the Emerald City,” piped up Bob, who had been listening to the Stone Man’s conversation with deep interest.
“Oh, that must be over there,” said Crunch, waving toward the east, “for often at night, when I’ve climbed Stone Mountain, I’ve seen bright green lights twinkling in the darkness.”
“Why, of course it is,” roared the Cowardly Lion in great excitement, “though why you have never gone over to find out I cannot imagine!”
“That’s because you were never a stone man,” sighed Crunch solemnly.
“Then we’ll soon see Dorothy and the Scarecrow!” cried Bob, clapping his hands. “Come on, let’s go to the Emerald City right away.
Nick flew off to the top of the mountain to investigate for himself.
“You forget Mustafa’s enchantment,” sighed Notta, pointing sadly to the rope that still bound him to the Cowardly Lion. “I daresay if we took a step toward the Emerald City, Mustafa would ring us
up again.”
“Who is Mustafa and why has he enchanted you?” demanded Crunch, rubbing his stone forehead noisily. Notta explained as much of their story as he thought the Stone Man would understand, and when he had finished Crunch gave a little spring that almost knocked them from the ledge. “Why, it is as clear as cobbles,” he roared, bringing down his fist upon a rock and splintering it to fragments. “You are weaker than I and, as I have fully determined to help someone, let me help you. Where is this Mustafa of Mudge? Take me to him and I will pound him to powder and disperse him to the winds.”
Before Notta could answer Nick came flying back to assure them that he had really seen the Emerald City from the mountain top and that it lay scarcely a half day’s journey away. “Then it seems to me,” said Notta, who had been doing some quick thinking, “that the time has come for us to separate. Bob, Nick and I will hasten to this Emerald City and appeal to Ozma, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. Meanwhile the Cowardly Lion can start toward Mudge and thus Mustafa’s ring will not betray us. But before he reaches there we will have found a way to help him.”
“And I will go with the Cowardly Lion,” declared Crunch promptly, “for I would rather help him than any one else.”
“Hurrah!” cried Bob Up, and so it was all decided. Then Notta sat on the Cowardly Lion’s back and he sprang down from the ledge. Next Snorer flew down with Bob, and the clown untied the rope that tied him to the lion. Immediately he and Bob turned blue, but when the Cowardly Lion took a few steps south, the blue quickly faded out. Notta was so relieved to be free that he turned six somersaults, stood on his head, and ran several paces on his hands, while Bob and Nick shouted with
glee.
“Crush and crumble me!” rasped the Stone Man, eyeing the clown in alarm, “is that the way men get about nowdays? The men I watched in the stone age never did that and I simply could not manage it, you know.”
“Don’t try,” begged Notta, and Nick hastened to assure him that most men walked in the usual fashion one foot before the other.
“Mudge should be exactly southwest fro
m here, so come on, old Cave Man, let’s be moving. Together we’ll conquer the whole tribe of Mudgers,” said the lion.
“You won’t have to,” cried Notta, giving the Cowardly Lion an affectionate hug, “if this Wizard of Oz is as clever as he’s said to be.”
Crunch waited impatiently while Nick and Bob bade the Cowardly Lion goodbye. Having stood around for seven centuries, he could not bear to waste another second, and when the Cowardly Lion at last declared himself ready to go he tramped offjoyfully, each step shaking the ground like a small earthquake and enveloping the poor lion in a cloud of dust.
“Goodbye!” called Bob Up shrilly, as they turned into a narrow rocky path and disappeared behind a small mountain.
“Goodbye!” roared the Cowardly Lion, bravely waving his tail in farewell. So much had happened since their flight from Un that Notta had forgotten all about the time of day, but when he started up the mountain, he grew so faint, he had to sit down on a rock. Bob, too, looked pale and weary, and every few hops Nick would close his eyes and indulge in a tremulous snore.
“Great Elephants!” puffed Notta at last, squinting up at the sun. “It must be nearly five o’clock and we’ve had nothing to eat since morning. Have you still got those eggs, Bob Up?” Bob felt hurriedly in his blouse and, with a triumphant smile, produced the eggs they had picked from the travelers’ tree. They were somewhat squashed, but when the shells had been removed they tasted delicious to the famished travelers. Washed down with some water from a little spring, the food renewed their strength and courage for the journey ahead.
“I hope nothing happens to the Cowardly Lion,” said Bob, as they started up the mountain again, “for I love him.”
“So do I,” croaked the Snorer, who was flying a little ahead, “and I shall miss him very much when we go to America to make our fortune. But, of course I could not leave that beautiful person.” He rolled his eyes proudly at Notta, and the clown quite unconsciously sighed. Life in a circus would seem terribly tame after this marvelous trip through Oz.
“We ought to be home tomorrow, if everything works out,” he remarked soberly, with an anxious glance at Bob. At the word “home” the little boy shivered slightly, for home to him meant a great, dreary institution where little boys whom nobody wanted were grudgingly sheltered and eternally shaken. In his heart he hoped the magic of this Wizard of Oz would not be strong enough to send them back. Notta was wondering to himself whether the managers of the home would trust a little boy’s future to a clown and resolving darkly that, if they wouldn’t, he’d take him anyhow. But he said nothing of this to Bob Up, and presently broke into such a comical song Bob forgot all about going back. This was the song:
“A goblin’s ears are very long, A goblin’s nose goes wobble, But what I’d really like to know Is what makes goblins gobble? Perhaps they gobble ‘cause they’re imps-And dreadfully imp-olite! Pshaw, all they do is squabble hobble, Gobble through the night!”
“Speaking of night,” chuckled Snorer, balancing on the branch of a low tree, “we’ll probably have to spend it in that forest below, for it would hardly be safe to travel in the dark and it’ll be dark by the time we’re down this mountain.
“Well,” laughed Notta, “it wouldn’t be the first time Bob and I have slept in a forest, and your snores ought to scare off any wild animals.”
“That’s so,” sighed Nick, adjusting his nose, and quite satisfied he flew on ahead. The path was rough and uneven and, though Notta and Bob frequently slipped and slid, in another hour they were safely down the mountain. It was dusk as they stepped into the strange forest, and Bob fancied the trees were peering down at him kindly. They were so tired Notta paused under an immense maple tree and Nick leaned up against the trunk and fell instantly to snoring and stamping, while Notta began gathering branches and leaves for beds. The clown spread his old lion disguise over Bob’s pile and the little boy, stretching out comfortably, gazed up at the first star twinkling merrily in the evening sky and thought how strange his narrow bed at the home would seem after this. The wind sighed in the tree tops with a gentle and soothing sound, and even Nick’s snoring seemed comforting and pleasant to Bob Up.
“Bob,” said Notta, as he dropped down beside him, “this is the friendliest forest I was ever in. Bob nodded, and at this a little rustle went rippling through the forest as if the trees had actually heard him, and in the same instant each tree quietly opened its trunk and drew forth a fiddle.
Before Notta and Bob had recovered from their surprise a wave of music swept through the
wood, now soft, now loud, but more entrancing than any they had ever heard. And the trees, swaying and bending in the dim starlight, plied their bows with more skill than any orchestra in the mortal world. For Bob and Notta, you see, had come to the Fiddlestick Forest of Oz.
CHAPTER 18 Notta’s Last Disguise
OF all his adventures, Bob remembered this strange concert longest. The fairylike music, that even made the Moon bend down to listen, the drumlike accompaniment of Nick’s snores and the misty faces of the trees themselves, bending down in the dim starlight, all added to the enchantment. Bob could not remember falling asleep, for all through his dreams marched the music of the fiddles-but he must have slept, for opening his eyes suddenly, he found the sun out and shining merrily. He looked around to ask Notta whether he had dreamed about the fiddles or really heard them, but Notta was nowhere to be seen. Nick, too, had vanished.
Rather alarmed, Bob jumped up. As he did so a large green leaf with white lines traced on it fluttered to the ground.
“You may use the Fiddlebow Boat,” said the leaf and, looking up, Bob fancied the big tree was smiling at him. So he made a stiff little bow and, holding fast to the leaf, started off uneasily to find his friends. The sound of water rippling over stones took him to the left, for he was terribly thirsty and in a few seconds he had come out on a rapid little stream. The water was so clear Bob could see the white stones gleaming on the bottom. Throwing himself down, he took a long, satisfying drink. When he straightened up he was astonished to see a boat tied to a slim birch that leaned far out over the water’s edge.
“Why, this must be the Fiddlebow Boat,” cried the little boy, hastening over to examine it. It was of a smooth and satiny garnet, and exactly the shape of a huge, hollowed-out fiddle. It rode gaily at the end of its pink line, and this discovery only made Bob more anxious than ever to find the clown. Calling first Notta and then Nick, he ran back to the big tree, and just as he reached it was horrified to see a witch bending over the pile of leaves he had slept on. With a shrill scream Bob turned to flee but the witch came bounding and hobbling after, calling to him in pleading tones not to run away. But the more the witch called, the faster Bob ran, and he might have been running yet, had he not tripped over the roots of a tree and fallen headlong. In an instant the black hands of his pursuer jerked him to his feet.
“Bob! Bob!” cried the witch remorsefully, “don’t you know me? Bob, it’s Notta only old
Notta!”
“Notta?” gasped Bob, for he was entirely out of breath and trembling like a leaf.
“There! There!” coaxed the clown. “It’s only one of my disguises.” As Bob continued to regard him with disfavor, he explained hurriedly, “You see we’re going to this Emerald City, Bob Up, where every other person is more or less magic. Now, what attention would they pay to a silly clown? Why, they might not even listen to me. But if I pretend to be a powerful witch, Princess Ozma and the Wizard of Oz, whom we’ve been hearing so much about, will hasten to do what I say.”
“You’ll frighten them,” said Bob stubbornly, but Notta shook his head. “People in fairy cities aren’t frightened as easily as little boys,” he chuckled knowingly. “And just look what I’ve found you for
breakfast!”
In Bob’s cap he had gathered nuts and berries of every kind, and Bob, seeing Notta was determined to go to the Emerald City as a witch, said nothing more but began to eat hungrily. After a h
earty breakfast, Nick came flapping back and was so startled by the clown’s disguise that his nose fell off the hook with a crash. But Notta soon reassured him and, as Bob was tingling with impatience to show them the boat they finished the berries in great haste.
“This is the friendliest forest I ever was in,” repeated the clown, viewing Bob’s discovery with delight. “This will take us out faster than we could walk and it’s much safer than the Flyaboutabus. Now then, all aboard for the Emerald City!”
Gathering up his witch skirts, Notta leaped into the Fiddlebow Boat and, seizing. the long oar, pushed it in close to the bank. Snorer alighted on the end, and Bob settled himself cozily among the cushions. Merrily the boat went dancing down the stream, propelled by Notta’s strong arm. The only thing that marred Bob’s pleasure was the thought of Notta’s disguise. But he determined to tell Dorothy, or the first person they met, that the clown was not a witch, but the jolliest fellow in the world. Somewhat comforted by this thought, Bob gave himself up to pure enjoyment.
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