L. Frank Baum - Oz 40

by Merry Go Round In Oz

  Surprisingly, it was Prince Gules who first recovered his wits. Even more surprisingly, he took instant action. Still clutching the Egg-basket, out of which the Flittermouse’s head was now warily protruding, he ran back to Dorothy’s window, shouting, “Quickly! Quickly! Our chance has come!” “Ch-chance?” Dorothy stammered, taking her fingers out of

  her ears.

  “Yes, and you must hurry! They’ll soon be returning. Are there clothes-closets in that playroom?” “Well, there’s a toy-closet-yes, there’s a clothes-closet, too. But what-”

  “Just obey me! Go quickly and find something big enough to fit you. Put it on and come back to the window.” “But-” Dorothy began.

  “Go!” the Prince commanded imperiously. As Dorothy vanished, he whirled and seized Fess’s wrist. “Come! I saw a picnic table under those trees. We must drag it under the window.”

  “But Your Highness, a table won’t be high enough to rescue her!” Fess panted, trying to pull back.

  “The Unicorn will rescue her, not the table!” snapped the Prince, jerking him on.

  “The Unicorn’s going to rescue her!” squeaked the Flittermouse, spurting out of the Egg-basket and skittering about in high excitement. Oh, drag the table as fast as you’re able, follow the plan as quick as you can, mind the rules, obey Prince Gules, don’t be bold, just do as you’re told, drag it hither, don’t stop to dither, that’s the way, but look at it sway, oh will it fall and ruin us all, now don’t forget . . Heavens to Bet-sy, hear how I’m rhyming-all of this time-” Flitter landed with a small, surprised thud on Fred’s saddle, gulped “-mg,” conscientiously and began to wonder what had come over him.

  The others were too busy to wonder anything. The table stood against the building now, directly under the window, and Prince Gules was insisting that the Unicorn leap on top of it.

  “But it’s so wobbly!” she protested. “I’ll do anything to help dear Dorothy, but if we both fall… !”

  “You won’t fall, I’ll brace the table,” Fred put in unexpectedly.

  He trotted quickly over and leaned against one side of the table, while the Cowardly Lion, who was beginning to understand the Prince’s plan, braced his massive shoulder against the other With a light spring the Unicorn bounded to the table-top, under the Prince’s direction, reared and placed both her front hooves against the wall of the building.

  “Now-bend your head until your horn is against that windowsill,” Gules ordered.

  At that moment, Dorothy appeared at the window, wearing a very stiffly starched white pinafore so much too small for that its sash came just below her armpits. She appeared both irritated and breathless, but when she saw Prince Gules’s arrangements she clapped her hands delightedly.

  “How awfly clever of you! Now if I can just get through this window . .

  She immediately began to try, while the others watched her anxiously and Flitter bounced up and down with excitement, keeping a sharp black-sequin eye out for Nannies meanwhile.

  “Can you manage?” said the Prince.

  “I think so. Oh! This pesky pinafore!” Dorothy puffed. “It’s

  like wearing a board!”

  “Who’s wiggling the table! Stop it!” exclaimed the Unicorn.

  “I can’t stop it, I’m terrified,” moaned the Cowardly Lion, who was trembling in every limb as he watched Dorothy’s precarious attempt to swing out the window.

  “Shut your eyes,” the Prince commanded him.

  “Oh, hurry! I see a Nannie,” Fess cried suddenly. “Three Nannies! And children … They’re all coming back!”

  “Never mind, I’m-there!” Dorothy gasped. As she spoke, she completed her perilous scramble from the windowsill. In an instant she had slid down the Unicorn’s neck, to a firm seat on its back.

  “Now!” the Prince sang out triumphantly. “Everybody run! Head for that far gate yonder!”

  With another of her floating leaps, the Unicorn sprang from the table to the ground and fled for the gate the Prince had indicated, with Dorothy safe on her back. Fess flung himself on the Cowardly Lion, who charged after them, and the Prince, though hampered by the Egg-basket, to which he was still stubbornly clinging, managed to scramble into the saddle somehow. But as Fred wheeled to follow the others, a crowd of Nannies and children streamed out of the Nursery almost under his nose. Fred reared, wheeled again, and headed around the building the other way, with Flitter darting behind.

  “More children, by my halberd! Quick through that patch

  of shrubbery!” the Prince panted.

  Nannies and children, having recovered from their fright, were appearing from everywhere now, more determined than ever to enforce the Law of Naptime. Within seconds all the travelers found themselves deflected from their straight dash for the gate, instead being forced to dodge, evade, detour around playhouses and wading pools and clusters of swings and teeter-totters, and-in the Cowardly Lion’s case-occasionally leap clean over the heads of groups of children who burst out of the shrubbery right in front of him. Separated and unable to keep track of what was happening to the others, each still kept moving somehow toward the gate, and finally Dorothy and the Unicorn dodged one last group of Nannies and dashed through it.

  “At last!” Dorothy gasped. “Thank goodness the woods are thick. Let’s hide.”

  Panting and exhausted, they concealed themselves behind a lemon-drop bush, and very shortly saw the Cowardly Lion, with his tongue out, his ears flat, and Fess half-buried in his mane, skim through the gates in one prodigious bound.

  “Here we are! Come hide yourselves, quick!” Dorothy called softly. “Where are the others?” she went on in an agitated whisper as the Lion flung himself down beside her and closed his eyes, muttering, “Nice vacation we’re having.”

  “Don’t know,” Fess puffed, collapsing thankfully on the ground. He stared with respect at the Cowardly Lion. “Whew! What a ride! Do you always spend most of your time in the air

  when you’re running?”

  “I do when I’m scared,” the Lion panted. “And I’m usually scared.” He opened his eves and looked at Dorothy in alarm. “Where are the others? You mean the Prince is still missing?

  “And Fred-I mean Federigo-and the Flittermouse! Oh, what can be keeping them?”

  “I’ll go find them,” the Cowardly Lion said instantly, struggling to his feet.

  “But my dear Lion, you’re much too tired!” the Unicorn

  protested.

  “Besides,” Dorothy added, giving her cowardly old friend a hug for being so brave, “They’re just bound to come in a minute. I’m sure Fred can run awf’ly fast.”

  “But did he even get started?” Fess said. He, too, stood up, frowning as he tried in vain to remember catching even a glimpse of Fred dashing, like the rest of them, about the lawns. “Oh, why did I leave them! How could I desert them like that? Not one of them is smart enough to get out of a fix-”

  “I thought the Prince acted mighty smart when he got me out of that window,” Dorothy said.

  “That was a lucky accident, I’m afraid. He’d never be able to think so fast again. And Fred-and poor little Flitter! Oh, I’ve got to go back and find them! Was Flitter even ‘with them?”

  “I’m sure he was,” said the Unicorn. “He climbed out of the Egg-basket when you went to fetch the table, and then-”

  “The Egg! Ozma’s Egg!” cried Dorothy, starting up. “Oh, I must go back too!”

  “Hush! Listen!” hissed the Lion.

  As soon as they stopped talking, they could hear rapid hoof-beats, and a moment later they saw the Steed pounding full tilt through the woods, his gleaming black legs working like pistons. The Prince was crouched like a jockey on his back, still clutching the Egg-basket as well as something fluttery and white, and the Flittermouse was clinging wildly to Fred’s headstrap, with his gauzy wings streaming straight out behind.

  “Stop them before they run right past us!” Dorothy cried.

  Fess was already plungin
g through the bushes and out into the path. At sight of him Fred arched his neck, set all four hooves, and stopped. The jolt was so severe that the Prince came close to sailing straight over his head; as he grabbed for balance, the basket spun out of his arms, and landed, bouncing. The Egg spilled out, chips from its candy flowers flew, and the gold band came loose and wobbled away in one direction while the Egg rolled in another.

  “Oh, I’m extremely sorry!” the Prince gasped. Tumbling out of the saddle, he ran to pick up the band, while Fess rescued both Egg and basket. By this time the others had crawled out of the bushes, and the party was once more reunited. Feeling themselves still too close to the Nursery for comfort, they pushed on deeper and deeper into the woods, until they were sure they had put a safe distance between themselves and the most adventurous Nannie.

  Then, at last, they stopped in a little clearing to catch their breath and collect themselves. The first thing Prince Gules did was apologize to Dorothy for dropping the Egg, and promise that he would try to fit the band back on. The second was to present her with the fluttering white thing he had been carrying, which turned out to be her dress. The Flittermouse, he explained, had spotted it hanging on a clothesline, had flown hurriedly to tell him, and they had made a detour back through the pursuing Nannies and Children to retrieve it. It was still slightly damp, but Dorothy was overjoyed to see it, and at once hung it over a branch to finish drying.

  “I’m ever so much obliged to you!” she told the Prince earnestly. “If you’d ever worn a starched pinafore three sizes too small for you, you’d know how obliged I am! Don’t you worry about Ozma’s Egg, I don’t think it’s damaged much at all-and besides you’ve more than made up for it, finding my dress for me, and figuring out how to rescue me from that playroom! That was sort of a s’prise,” she added thoughtfully. “That it was you who figured it out, I mean.

  “Those Nannies were a surprise, too,” the Cowardly Lion rumbled, lashing his tail a little at the memory.

  “So was our fall off that fire-escape,” Fess sighed.

  “And having to dash through that park,” added the Steed, who was still leaning wearily against a tree.

  The Cowardly Lion yawned and lay down heavily. “Yes, on the whole I can’t say I care much for surprises. And,” he added with a glance at the lengthening shadows all about them, “I think we’ve all had plenty of them for today. I vote we camp right here and try for a nice uneventful night’s sleep.”

  But there was one more surprise in store for them. A few minutes later, when Fred and the Unicorn had wandered off to graze on the flower-starred moss, Flitter was swooping after gnats, and Dorothy and Fess were exploring the badly squashed contents of the lunch basket, Prince Gules settled down under a tree to see if he could fit the band back on Ozma’s Egg. And a moment or two after that, he gave a sudden, strange, sharp outcry that made everybody look around in alarm, and caused the Cowardly Lion to choke violently on a crumb.

  “What’s wrong?” Fess cried.

  The Prince was sitting bolt upright, staring with open mouth at the slightly dented gold band off the Egg. He seemed struck dumb, but raised one hand and beckoned wordlessly. As the entire party converged on him like pins rushing to a magnet, he held up the band so that every one could see its inside surface. There, delicately engraved on the shining metal, were the words “Herald of Halidom,” followed by a small but distinct figure “1”.

  “It’s a Circlet!” Prince Gules brought out at last, in a voice grown hoarse with excitement. “I’ve found one of the Golden Circlets of Halidom-on an Easter Egg!”

  Chapter 14

  The great discovery had come so unexpectedly that it was some time before the astonished travelers could comprehend that one of the lost Circlets of Halidom was actually in their possession, and one portion of the Prince’s quest accomplished.

  “Which Circlet is it?” Dorothy asked.

  “The largest, Circlet One,” the Prince told her. “You can see the number engraved inside it. The kings of Halidom always wore it around their crowns-until my greatgrandfather lost it playing quoits.”

  “Lost it down a rabbit-hole!” Fess said suddenly.

  “So that’s how the bunnies got hold of it!” Dorothy exclaimed. “One of them found it, I s’pose, and took it to the cavern as a sort of-of curio, and-”

  “And then that Chief Artist, or whoever he was, used it to decorate a sugar egg!” said the Cowardly Lion. “Won a contest with it, too!” he added with a roar of laughter.

  “I fail to see anything funny,” Fred said with a glare, “about the First Golden Circlet of Halidom being used to decorate a sugar candy trinket.”

  “Oh, well, it hasn’t hurt it,” Fess said pacifically. “Though I think it’s changed it some. Of course, I’ve never even seen this one, it was lost such a long time ago, but Circlet Two, the

  one that was stolen from the Wyver, was thicker, and smooth all over.”

  “So was this one, in the olden days,” the Unicorn put in, in her gentle voice. “I’ve seen it, many times-on your dear greatgrandfather’s head, Your Highness. It’s shocking! They’ve beaten it quite flat to fit around that Egg.”

  “Flat or not, you will soon see it on my head,” announced the Prince, who had been working to bend the egg-shaped band back into its original circle. “Furthermore, you will never See it off my head until I ride back into Pax-on-Argent and give it to my father. I say-I’ve thought of something! Everyone is smart again now, back home in Halidom!”

  “Ooooooh!” squeaked the Flittermouse, dropping from a branch to perch on the Cowardly Lion’s nose in great excitement. “Is this the one that makes us smart?

  “That’s right!” Fess exclaimed. “Why, Your Highness, you began being clever the minute I handed you that basket! Remember? I shoved it at you when I ran to climb that vine on the Nursery wall-”

  “And the next thing we knew, you’d thought up that excellent plan for rescuing the maiden,” said the Unicorn. Her golden eyes rested fondly on Dorothy. “So fortunate,” she murmured.

  “And the Flittermouse started thinking up rhymes-whole lots of them!” Dorothy said.

  “And even I had the common horse-sense to brace the table,”

  Fred whinnied triumphantly.

  “And I found Dorothy’s dress,” added the Flittermouse in a rather tentative voice. “That was pretty smart, too-wasn’t it?” he asked the Cowardly Lion, turning to peer into his eyes, which were only about five inches away.

  “Yes indeed! It showed the greatest perspicacity!” the Lion declared, looking cross-eyed in an effort to focus on him, and trying not to sneeze.

  Flitter stared at him, enthralled. “Per-scacity. Verscatity. Verse-picacity,” he whispered, his black-sequin eyes round with awe. Suddenly squeaking “I’m smart! I’m smart!” he hurled him-selfjoyously into the air and performed a whole aerial ballet of silent skitterings, swoopings, side-slips, roll-overs, nose-dives, and soaring spirals, until he looked like one more flitting blue shadow among those now fast stealing through the trees. Dorothy, watching him, thought she had never seen anything so enchanting.

  Fess had already observed that night was almost upon them, and as the others went on discussing the new quick-wittedness of the Halidomians, he roamed about gathering twigs, dry leaves, and fallen branches, and piling them into a heap in the center of the clearing. As he produced his tinder-box and began to strike sparks into the mass, he reflected with some amusement that though he had only the same old ordinary wits he was born with, he was still the only one of the party who ever thought of practical things, such as building a fire before it was too dark to find

  the wood.

  Once the flames sprang up, the others roused themselves. Fred and the Unicorn returned to their mossy dinner, and the rest gathered cozily around the fire to finish the mashed jelly sandwiches. The Prince had by this time managed to squeeze the Circlet back into shape, and pressed it down firmly on his blue-black hair, where it glinted impressively in
the firelight.

  “I’m just disgusted,” Dorothy remarked as she studied it, “To think how we lugged that Egg around all day hunting for the Circlet-and if we’d only looked, it was right before our eyes!”

  “Right before our eyes,” Fess repeated in a puzzled tone. “Now why does that sound familiar? Right before our-”

  “The Oracle!” the Flittermouse squeaked, landing suddenly on his shoulder. “That’s what the Oracle verses said, Fess dear. Something about ‘right before your eyes.’”

  “So it did!” Dorothy said. “Let’s take another look at those

  verses!”

  Fess was already diving into various pockets, and in a moment produced the crumpled but still legible sheet from the Register-book. Holding it so that the firelight fell on it, he read it out:

  “Circlet One, in strange disguise, Will lie unseen before your eyes. Flight and chance will set in free; Despoil the gift to royalty.

  “Well! It certainly makes plenty of sense now, doesn’t it?” he finished.

  “But we didn’t really spoil Ozma’s present, did we Dorothy dear?” the Flittermouse asked in a worried voice.

  “Oh, no,” Dorothy assured the little creature. “It works as well as ever, and the Wizard can put on another band. ‘Despoil’ means something different, Flitter.”

  “I rather feel I should apologize to that Oracle,” the Prince admitted. “Never again will I think a Crystal Ball is silly! Do you know, if that verse makes sense, the others must, too. Read them, Fess. Perhaps now that I’m a bit more intelligent, I can understand them.”