Chapter Four
The Loons of Loonville
Toward evening, the travelers found there was no longer a path to guidethem, and the purple hues of the grass and trees warned them that theywere now in the Country of the Gillikins, where strange peoples dweltin places that were quite unknown to the other inhabitants of Oz. Thefields were wild and uncultivated and there were no houses of any sortto be seen. But our friends kept on walking even after the sun wentdown, hoping to find a good place for Woot the Wanderer to sleep; butwhen it grew quite dark and the boy was weary with his long walk, theyhalted right in the middle of a field and allowed Woot to get hissupper from the food he carried in his knapsack. Then the Scarecrowlaid himself down, so that Woot could use his stuffed body as a pillow,and the Tin Woodman stood up beside them all night, so the dampness ofthe ground might not rust his joints or dull his brilliant polish.Whenever the dew settled on his body he carefully wiped it off with acloth, and so in the morning the Emperor shone as brightly as ever inthe rays of the rising sun.
They wakened the boy at daybreak, the Scarecrow saying to him:
"We have discovered something queer, and therefore we must counseltogether what to do about it."
"What have you discovered?" asked Woot, rubbing the sleep from his eyeswith his knuckles and giving three wide yawns to prove he was fullyawake.
"A Sign," said the Tin Woodman. "A Sign, and another path."
"What does the Sign say?" inquired the boy.
"It says that 'All Strangers are Warned not to Follow this Path toLoonville,'" answered the Scarecrow, who could read very well when hiseyes had been freshly painted.
"In that case," said the boy, opening his knapsack to get somebreakfast, "let us travel in some other direction."
But this did not seem to please either of his companions.
"I'd like to see what Loonville looks like," remarked the Tin Woodman.
"When one travels, it is foolish to miss any interesting sight," addedthe Scarecrow.
"But a warning means danger," protested Woot the Wanderer, "and Ibelieve it sensible to keep out of danger whenever we can."
They made no reply to this speech for a while. Then said the Scarecrow:
"I have escaped so many dangers, during my lifetime, that I am not muchafraid of anything that can happen."
"Nor am I!" exclaimed the Tin Woodman, swinging his glittering axearound his tin head, in a series of circles. "Few things can injuretin, and my axe is a powerful weapon to use against a foe. But our boyfriend," he continued, looking solemnly at Woot, "might perhaps beinjured if the people of Loonville are really dangerous; so I proposehe waits here while you and I, Friend Scarecrow, visit the forbiddenCity of Loonville."
"Don't worry about me," advised Woot, calmly. "Wherever you wish to go,I will go, and share your dangers. During my wanderings I have found itmore wise to keep out of danger than to venture in, but at that time Iwas alone, and now I have two powerful friends to protect me."
So, when he had finished his breakfast, they all set out along the paththat led to Loonville.
"It is a place I have never heard of before," remarked the Scarecrow,as they approached a dense forest. "The inhabitants may be people, ofsome sort, or they may be animals, but whatever they prove to be, wewill have an interesting story to relate to Dorothy and Ozma on ourreturn."
The path led into the forest, but the big trees grew so closelytogether and the vines and underbrush were so thick and matted thatthey had to clear a path at each step in order to proceed. In one ortwo places the Tin Man, who went first to clear the way, cut thebranches with a blow of his axe. Woot followed next, and last of thethree came the Scarecrow, who could not have kept the path at all hadnot his comrades broken the way for his straw-stuffed body.
Presently the Tin Woodman pushed his way through some heavy underbrush,and almost tumbled headlong into a vast cleared space in the forest.The clearing was circular, big and roomy, yet the top branches of thetall trees reached over and formed a complete dome or roof for it.Strangely enough, it was not dark in this immense natural chamber inthe woodland, for the place glowed with a soft, white light that seemedto come from some unseen source.
In the chamber were grouped dozens of queer creatures, and these soastonished the Tin Man that Woot had to push his metal body aside, thathe might see, too. And the Scarecrow pushed Woot aside, so that thethree travelers stood in a row, staring with all their eyes.
The creatures they beheld were round and ball-like; round in body,round in legs and arms, round in hands and feet and round of head. Theonly exception to the roundness was a slight hollow on the top of eachhead, making it saucer-shaped instead of dome-shaped. They wore noclothes on their puffy bodies, nor had they any hair. Their skins wereall of a light gray color, and their eyes were mere purple spots. Theirnoses were as puffy as the rest of them.
"Are they rubber, do you think?" asked the Scarecrow, who noticed thatthe creatures bounded, as they moved, and seemed almost as light as air.
"It is difficult to tell what they are," answered Woot, "they seem tobe covered with warts."
The Loons--for so these folks were called--had been doing many things,some playing together, some working at tasks and some gathered ingroups to talk; but at the sound of strange voices, which echoed ratherloudly through the clearing, all turned in the direction of theintruders. Then, in a body, they all rushed forward, running andbounding with tremendous speed.
The Tin Woodman was so surprised by this sudden dash that he had notime to raise his axe before the Loons were on them. The creaturesswung their puffy hands, which looked like boxing-gloves, and poundedthe three travelers as hard as they could, on all sides. The blows werequite soft and did not hurt our friends at all, but the onslaught quitebewildered them, so that in a brief period all three were knocked overand fell flat upon the ground. Once down, many of the Loons held them,to prevent their getting up again, while others wound long tendrils ofvines about them, binding their arms and legs to their bodies and sorendering them helpless.
"Aha!" cried the biggest Loon of all; "we've got 'em safe; so let'scarry 'em to King Bal and have 'em tried, and condemned andperforated!" They had to drag their captives to the center of the domedchamber, for their weight, as compared with that of the Loons,prevented their being carried. Even the Scarecrow was much heavier thanthe puffy Loons. But finally the party halted before a raised platform,on which stood a sort of throne, consisting of a big, wide chair with astring tied to one arm of it. This string led upward to the roof of thedome.
Arranged before the platform, the prisoners were allowed to sit up,facing the empty throne.
"Good!" said the big Loon who had commanded the party. "Now to get KingBal to judge these terrible creatures we have so bravely captured."
As he spoke he took hold of the string and began to pull as hard as hecould. One or two of the others helped him and pretty soon, as theydrew in the cord, the leaves above them parted and a Loon appeared atthe other end of the string. It didn't take long to draw him down tothe throne, where he seated himself and was tied in, so he wouldn'tfloat upward again.
"Hello," said the King, blinking his purple eyes at his followers;"what's up now!"
"Strangers, your Majesty--strangers and captives," replied the bigLoon, pompously.
"Dear me! I see 'em. I see 'em very plainly," exclaimed the King, hispurple eyes bulging out as he looked at the three prisoners. "Whatcurious animals! Are they dangerous, do you think, my good Panta?"
"I'm 'fraid so, your Majesty. Of course, they may not be dangerous, butwe mustn't take chances. Enough accidents happen to us poor Loons as itis, and my advice is to condemn and perforate 'em as quickly aspossible."
"Keep your advice to yourself," said the monarch, in a peeved tone."Who's King here, anyhow? You or Me?"
"We made you our King because you have less common sense than the restof us," answered Panta Loon, indignantly. "I could have been Kingmyself, had I wanted to, but I didn't care for the har
d work andresponsibility."
As he said this, the big Loon strutted back and forth in the spacebetween the throne of King Bal and the prisoners, and the other Loonsseemed much impressed by his defiance. But suddenly there came a sharpreport and Panta Loon instantly disappeared, to the great astonishmentof the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and Woot the Wanderer, who saw on thespot where the big fellow had stood a little heap of flabby, wrinkledskin that looked like a collapsed rubber balloon.
"There!" exclaimed the King; "I expected that would happen. Theconceited rascal wanted to puff himself up until he was bigger than therest of you, and this is the result of his folly. Get the pump working,some of you, and blow him up again."
"We will have to mend the puncture first, your Majesty," suggested oneof the Loons, and the prisoners noticed that none of them seemedsurprised or shocked at the sad accident to Panta.
"All right," grumbled the King. "Fetch Til to mend him."
One or two ran away and presently returned, followed by a lady Loonwearing huge, puffed-up rubber skirts. Also she had a purple featherfastened to a wart on the top of her head, and around her waist was asash of fibre-like vines, dried and tough, that looked like strings.
"Get to work, Til," commanded King Bal. "Panta has just exploded."
The lady Loon picked up the bunch of skin and examined it carefullyuntil she discovered a hole in one foot. Then she pulled a strand ofstring from her sash, and drawing the edges of the hole together, shetied them fast with the string, thus making one of those curious wartswhich the strangers had noticed on so many Loons. Having done this, TilLoon tossed the bit of skin to the other Loons and was about to go awaywhen she noticed the prisoners and stopped to inspect them.
"Dear me!" said Til; "what dreadful creatures. Where did they comefrom?"
"We captured them," replied one of the Loons.
"And what are we going to do with them?" inquired the girl Loon.
"Perhaps we'll condemn 'em and puncture 'em," answered the King.
"Well," said she, still eyeing the "I'm not sure they'll puncture.Let's try it, and see."
One of the Loons ran to the forest's edge and quickly returned with along, sharp thorn. He glanced at the King, who nodded his head inassent, and then he rushed forward and stuck the thorn into the leg ofthe Scarecrow. The Scarecrow merely smiled and said nothing, for thethorn didn't hurt him at all.
Then the Loon tried to prick the Tin Woodman's leg, but the tin onlyblunted the point of the thorn.
"Just as I thought," said Til, blinking her purple eyes and shaking herpuffy head; but just then the Loon stuck the thorn into the leg of Wootthe Wanderer, and while it had been blunted somewhat, it was stillsharp enough to hurt.
"Ouch!" yelled Woot, and kicked out his leg with so much energy thatthe frail bonds that tied him burst apart. His foot caught theLoon--who was leaning over him--full on his puffy stomach, and sent himshooting up into the air. When he was high over their heads he explodedwith a loud "pop" and his skin fell to the ground.
"I really believe," said the King, rolling his spotlike eyes in afrightened way, "that Panta was right in claiming these prisoners aredangerous. Is the pump ready?"
Some of the Loons had wheeled a big machine in front of the throne andnow took Panta's skin and began to pump air into it. Slowly it swelledout until the King cried "Stop!"
"No, no!" yelled Panta, "I'm not big enough yet."
"You're as big as you're going to be," declared the King. "Before youexploded you were bigger than the rest of us, and that caused you tobe proud and overbearing. Now you're a little smaller than the rest,and you will last longer and be more humble."
"Pump me up--pump me up!" wailed Panta "If you don't you'll break myheart."
"If we do we'll break your skin," replied the King.
So the Loons stopped pumping air into Panta, and pushed him away fromthe pump. He was certainly more humble than before his accident, for hecrept into the background and said nothing more.
"Now pump up the other one," ordered the King. Til had already mendedhim, and the Loons set to work to pump him full of air.
During these last few moments none had paid much attention to theprisoners, so Woot, finding his legs free, crept over to the TinWoodman and rubbed the bonds that were still around his arms and bodyagainst the sharp edge of the axe, which quickly cut them.
The boy was now free, and the thorn which the Loon had stuck into hisleg was lying unnoticed on the ground, where the creature had droppedit when he exploded. Woot leaned forward and picked up the thorn, andwhile the Loons were busy watching the pump, the boy sprang to his feetand suddenly rushed upon the group.
"Pop"--"pop"--"pop!" went three of the Loons, when the Wanderer prickedthem with his thorn, and at the sounds the others looked around and sawtheir danger. With yells of fear they bounded away in all directions,scattering about the clearing, with Woot the Wanderer in full chase.While they could run much faster than the boy, they often stumbled andfell, or got in one another's way, so he managed to catch several andprick them with his thorn.
It astonished him to see how easily the Loons exploded. When the airwas let out of them they were quite helpless. Til Loon was one of thosewho ran against his thorn and many others suffered the same fate. Thecreatures could not escape from the enclosure, but in their fright manybounded upward and caught branches of the trees, and then climbed outof reach of the dreaded thorn.
Woot was getting pretty tired chasing them, so he stopped and cameover, panting, to where his friends were sitting, still bound.
"Very well done, my Wanderer," said the Tin Woodman. "It is evidentthat we need fear these puffed-up creatures no longer, so be kindenough to unfasten our bonds and we will proceed upon our journey."
Woot untied the bonds of the Scarecrow and helped him to his feet. Thenhe freed the Tin Woodman, who got up without help. Looking around them,they saw that the only Loon now remaining within reach was Bal Loon,the King, who had remained seated in his throne, watching thepunishment of his people with a bewildered look in his purple eyes.
"Shall I puncture the King?" the boy asked his companions.
King Bal must have overheard the question, for he fumbled with the cordthat fastened him to the throne and managed to release it. Then hefloated upward until he reached the leafy dome, and parting thebranches he disappeared from sight. But the string that was tied to hisbody was still connected with the arm of the throne, and they knew theycould pull his Majesty down again, if they wanted to.
"Let him alone," suggested the Scarecrow. "He seems a good enough kingfor his peculiar people, and after we are gone, the Loons will havesomething of a job to pump up all those whom Woot has punctured."
"Every one of them ought to be exploded," declared Woot, who was angrybecause his leg still hurt him.
"No," said the Tin Woodman, "that would not be just fair. They werequite right to capture us, because we had no business to intrude here,having been warned to keep away from Loonville. This is their country,not ours, and since the poor things can't get out of the clearing, theycan harm no one save those who venture here out of curiosity, as wedid."
"Well said, my friend," agreed tile Scarecrow. "We really had no rightto disturb their peace and comfort; so let us go away."
They easily found the place where they had forced their way into theenclosure, so the Tin Woodman pushed aside the underbrush and startedfirst along the path. The Scarecrow followed next and last came Woot,who looked back and saw that the Loons were still clinging to theirperches on the trees and watching their former captives with frightenedeyes.
"I guess they're glad to see the last of us," remarked the boy, andlaughing at the happy ending of the adventure, he followed his comradesalong the path.
The Tin Woodman of Oz Page 4