Facing the Scoodlers
The country wasn't so pretty now. Before the travelers appeared a rockyplain covered with hills on which grew nothing green. They were nearingsome low mountains, too, and the road, which before had been smooth andpleasant to walk upon, grew rough and uneven.
Button-Bright's little feet stumbled more than once, and Polychromeceased her dancing because the walking was now so difficult that she hadno trouble to keep warm.
It had become afternoon, yet there wasn't a thing for their luncheonexcept two apples which the shaggy man had taken from the breakfasttable. He divided these into four pieces and gave a portion to each ofhis companions. Dorothy and Button-Bright were glad to get theirs; butPolly was satisfied with a small bite, and Toto did not like apples.
"Do you know," asked the Rainbow's Daughter, "if this is the right roadto the Emerald City?"
"No, I don't," replied Dorothy; "but it's the only road in this part ofthe country, so we may as well go to the end of it."
"It looks now as if it might end pretty soon," remarked the shaggy man;"and what shall we do if it does?"
"Don't know," said Button-Bright.
"If I had my Magic Belt," replied Dorothy, thoughtfully, "it could do usa lot of good just now."
"What is your Magic Belt?" asked Polychrome.
"It's a thing I captured from the Nome King one day, and it can do 'mostany wonderful thing. But I left it with Ozma, you know; 'cause magicwon't work in Kansas, but only in fairy countries."
"Is this a fairy country?" asked Button-Bright.
"I should think you'd know," said the little girl, gravely. "If itwasn't a fairy country you couldn't have a fox head and the shaggy mancouldn't have a donkey head, and the Rainbow's Daughter would beinvis'ble."
"What's that?" asked the boy.
"You don't seem to know anything, Button-Bright. Invis'ble is a thingyou can't see."
"Then Toto's invisible," declared the boy, and Dorothy found he wasright. Toto had disappeared from view, but they could hear him barkingfuriously among the heaps of grey rock ahead of them.
They moved forward a little faster to see what the dog was barking at,and found perched upon a point of rock by the roadside a curiouscreature. It had the form of a man, middle-sized and rather slender andgraceful; but as it sat silent and motionless upon the peak they couldsee that its face was black as ink, and it wore a black cloth costumemade like a union suit and fitting tight to its skin. Its hands wereblack, too, and its toes curled down, like a bird's. The creature wasblack all over except its hair, which was fine, and yellow, banged infront across the black forehead and cut close at the sides. The eyes,which were fixed steadily upon the barking dog, were small and sparklingand looked like the eyes of a weasel.
"What in the world do you s'pose that is?" asked Dorothy in a hushedvoice, as the little group of travelers stood watching the strangecreature.
"Don't know," said Button-Bright.
The thing gave a jump and turned half around, sitting in the same placebut with the other side of its body facing them. Instead of being black,it was now pure white, with a face like that of a clown in a circus andhair of a brilliant purple. The creature could bend either way, and itswhite toes now curled the same way the black ones on the other side haddone.
"It has a face both front and back," whispered Dorothy, wonderingly;"only there's no back at all, but two fronts."
Having made the turn, the being sat motionless as before, while Totobarked louder at the white man than he had done at the black one.
"Once," said the shaggy man, "I had a jumping-jack like that, with twofaces."
"Was it alive?" asked Button-Bright.
"No," replied the shaggy man; "it worked on strings, and was made ofwood."
"Wonder if this works with strings," said Dorothy; but Polychrome cried"Look!" for another creature just like the first had suddenly appearedsitting on another rock, its black side toward them. The two twistedtheir heads around and showed a black face on the white side of one anda white face on the black side of the other.
"How curious," said Polychrome; "and how loose their heads seem to be!Are they friendly to us, do you think?"
"Can't tell, Polly," replied Dorothy. "Let's ask 'em."
The creatures flopped first one way and then the other, showing black orwhite by turns; and now another joined them, appearing on another rock.Our friends had come to a little hollow in the hills, and the placewhere they now stood was surrounded by jagged peaks of rock, exceptwhere the road ran through.
"Now there are four of them," said the shaggy man.
"Five," declared Polychrome.
"Six," said Dorothy.
"Lots of 'em!" cried Button-Bright; and so there were--quite a row ofthe two-sided black and white creatures sitting on the rocks all around.
Toto stopped barking and ran between Dorothy's feet, where he croucheddown as if afraid. The creatures did not look pleasant or friendly, tobe sure, and the shaggy man's donkey face became solemn, indeed.
"Ask 'em who they are, and what they want," whispered Dorothy; so theshaggy man called out in a loud voice:
"Who are you?"
"Scoodlers!" they yelled in chorus, their voices sharp and shrill.
"What do you want?" called the shaggy man.
"You!" they yelled, pointing their thin fingers at the group; and theyall flopped around, so they were white, and then all flopped back again,so they were black.
"But what do you want us for?" asked the shaggy man, uneasily.
"Soup!" they all shouted, as if with one voice.
"YOU!" THEY YELLED]
"Goodness me!" said Dorothy, trembling a little; "the Scoodlers must bereg'lar cannibals."
"Don't want to be soup," protested Button-Bright, beginning to cry.
"Hush, dear," said the little girl, trying to comfort him; "we don't anyof us want to be soup. But don't worry; the shaggy man will take care ofus."
"Will he?" asked Polychrome, who did not like the Scoodlers at all, andkept close to Dorothy.
"I'll try," promised the shaggy man; but he looked worried.
Happening just then to feel the Love Magnet in his pocket, he said tothe creatures, with more confidence:
"Don't you love me?"
"Yes!" they shouted, all together.
"Then you mustn't harm me, or my friends," said the shaggy man, firmly.
"We love you in soup!" they yelled, and in a flash turned their whitesides to the front.
"How dreadful!" said Dorothy. "This is a time, Shaggy Man, when you getloved too much."
"Don't want to be soup!" wailed Button-Bright again; and Toto began towhine dismally, as if he didn't want to be soup, either.
"The only thing to do," said the shaggy man to his friends, in a lowtone, "is to get out of this pocket in the rocks as soon as we can, andleave the Scoodlers behind us. Follow me, my dears, and don't pay anyattention to what they do or say."
With this he began to march along the road to the opening in the rocksahead, and the others kept close behind him. But the Scoodlers closed upin front, as if to bar their way, and so the shaggy man stooped down andpicked up a loose stone, which he threw at the creatures to scare themfrom the path.
At this the Scoodlers raised a howl. Two of them picked their heads fromtheir shoulders and hurled them at the shaggy man with such force thathe fell over in a heap, greatly astonished. The two now ran forward withswift leaps, caught up their heads, and put them on again, after whichthey sprang back to their positions on the rocks.
The Road to Oz Page 10