The Classic Children's Literature Collection: 39 Classic Novels

by Various Authors

  “Only one thing can be done,” said Ozma, at last, “and that is to return to the Nome King and oblige him to tell us what has become of our friend.”

  “Perhaps he won’t,” suggested Billina.

  “He must,” returned Ozma, firmly. “The King has not treated us honestly, for under the mask of fairness and good nature he entrapped us all, and we would have been forever enchanted had not our wise and clever friend, the yellow hen, found a way to save us.”

  “The King is a villain,” declared the Scarecrow.

  “His laugh is worse than another man’s frown,” said the private, with a shudder.

  “I thought he was hon-est, but I was mis-tak-en,” remarked Tiktok. “My thoughts are us-u-al-ly cor-rect, but it is Smith & Tin-ker’s fault if they some-times go wrong or do not work prop-er-ly.”

  “Smith & Tinker made a very good job of you,” said Ozma, kindly. “I do not think they should be blamed if you are not quite perfect.”

  “Thank you,” replied Tiktok.

  “Then,” said Billina, in her brisk little voice, “let us all go back to the Nome King, and see what he has to say for himself.”

  So they started for the entrance, Ozma going first, with the Queen and her train of little Princes and Princesses following. Then came Tiktok, and the Scarecrow with Billina perched upon his straw-stuffed shoulder. The twenty-seven officers and the private brought up the rear.

  As they reached the hall the doors flew open before them; but then they all stopped and stared into the domed cavern with faces of astonishment and dismay. For the room was filled with the mail-clad warriors of the Nome King, rank after rank standing in orderly array. The electric lights upon their brows gleamed brightly, their battle-axes were poised as if to strike down their foes; yet they remained motionless as statues, awaiting the word of command.

  And in the center of this terrible army sat the little King upon his throne of rock. But he neither smiled nor laughed. Instead, his face was distorted with rage, and most dreadful to behold.

  17. The Scarecrow Wins the Fight

  After Billina had entered the palace Dorothy and Evring sat down to await the success or failure of her mission, and the Nome King occupied his throne and smoked his long pipe for a while in a cheerful and contented mood.

  Then the bell above the throne, which sounded whenever an enchantment was broken, began to ring, and the King gave a start of annoyance and exclaimed, “Rocketty-ricketts!”

  When the bell rang a second time the King shouted angrily, “Smudge and blazes!” and at a third ring he screamed in a fury, “Hippikaloric!” which must be a dreadful word because we don’t know what it means.

  After that the bell went on ringing time after time; but the King was now so violently enraged that he could not utter a word, but hopped out of his throne and all around the room in a mad frenzy, so that he reminded Dorothy of a jumping-jack.

  The girl was, for her part, filled with joy at every peal of the bell, for it announced the fact that Billina had transformed one more ornament into a living person. Dorothy was also amazed at Billina’s success, for she could not imagine how the yellow hen was able to guess correctly from all the bewildering number of articles clustered in the rooms of the palace. But after she had counted ten, and the bell continued to ring, she knew that not only the royal family of Ev, but Ozma and her followers also, were being restored to their natural forms, and she was so delighted that the antics of the angry King only made her laugh merrily.

  Perhaps the little monarch could not be more furious than he was before, but the girl’s laughter nearly drove him frantic, and he roared at her like a savage beast. Then, as he found that all his enchantments were likely to be dispelled and his victims every one set free, he suddenly ran to the little door that opened upon the balcony and gave the shrill whistle that summoned his warriors.

  At once the army filed out of the gold and silver doors in great numbers, and marched up a winding stairs and into the throne room, led by a stern featured Nome who was their captain. When they had nearly filled the throne room they formed ranks in the big underground cavern below, and then stood still until they were told what to do next.

  Dorothy had pressed back to one side of the cavern when the warriors entered, and now she stood holding little Prince Evring’s hand while the great Lion crouched upon one side and the enormous Tiger crouched on the other side.

  “Seize that girl!” shouted the King to his captain, and a group of warriors sprang forward to obey. But both the Lion and Tiger snarled so fiercely and bared their strong, sharp teeth so threateningly, that the men drew back in alarm.

  “Don’t mind them!” cried the Nome King; “they cannot leap beyond the places where they now stand.”

  “But they can bite those who attempt to touch the girl,” said the captain.

  “I’ll fix that,” answered the King. “I’ll enchant them again, so that they can’t open their jaws.”

  He stepped out of the throne to do this, but just then the Sawhorse ran up behind him and gave the fat monarch a powerful kick with both his wooden hind legs.

  “Ow! Murder! Treason!” yelled the King, who had been hurled against several of his warriors and was considerably bruised. “Who did that?”

  “I did,” growled the Sawhorse, viciously. “You let Dorothy alone, or I’ll kick you again.”

  “We’ll see about that,” replied the King, and at once he waved his hand toward the Sawhorse and muttered a magical word. “Aha!” he continued; “NOW let us see you move, you wooden mule!”

  But in spite of the magic the Sawhorse moved; and he moved so quickly toward the King, that the fat little man could not get out of his way. Thump—BANG! came the wooden heels, right against his round body, and the King flew into the air and fell upon the head of his captain, who let him drop flat upon the ground.

  “Well, well!” said the King, sitting up and looking surprised. “Why didn’t my magic belt work, I wonder?”

  “The creature is made of wood,” replied the captain. “Your magic will not work on wood, you know.”

  “Ah, I’d forgotten that,” said the King, getting up and limping to his throne. “Very well, let the girl alone. She can’t escape us, anyway.”

  The warriors, who had been rather confused by these incidents, now formed their ranks again, and the Sawhorse pranced across the room to Dorothy and took a position beside the Hungry Tiger.

  At that moment the doors that led to the palace flew open and the people of Ev and the people of Oz were disclosed to view. They paused, astonished, at sight of the warriors and the angry Nome King, seated in their midst.

  “Surrender!” cried the King, in a loud voice. “You are my prisoners.”

  “Go ‘long!” answered Billina, from the Scarecrow’s shoulder. “You promised me that if I guessed correctly my friends and I might depart in safety. And you always keep your promises.”

  “I said you might leave the palace in safety,” retorted the King; “and so you may, but you cannot leave my dominions. You are my prisoners, and I will hurl you all into my underground dungeons, where the volcanic fires glow and the molten lava flows in every direction, and the air is hotter than blue blazes.”

  “That will be the end of me, all right,” said the Scarecrow, sorrowfully. “One small blaze, blue or green, is enough to reduce me to an ash-heap.”

  “Do you surrender?” demanded the King.

  Billina whispered something in the Scarecrow’s ear that made him smile and put his hands in his jacket pockets.

  “No!” returned Ozma, boldly answering the King. Then she said to her army:

  “Forward, my brave soldiers, and fight for your Ruler and yourselves, unto death!”

  “Pardon me, Most Royal Ozma,” replied one of her generals; “but I find that I and my brother officers all suffer from heart disease, and the slightes
t excitement might kill us. If we fight we may get excited. Would it not be well for us to avoid this grave danger?”

  “Soldiers should not have heart disease,” said Ozma.

  “Private soldiers are not, I believe, afflicted that way,” declared another general, twirling his moustache thoughtfully. “If your Royal Highness desires, we will order our private to attack yonder warriors.”

  “Do so,” replied Ozma.

  “For-ward—march!” cried all the generals, with one voice. “For-ward—march!” yelled the colonels. “For-ward—march!” shouted the majors. “For-ward—march!” commanded the captains.

  And at that the private leveled his spear and dashed furiously upon the foe.

  The captain of the Nomes was so surprised by this sudden onslaught that he forgot to command his warriors to fight, so that the ten men in the first row, who stood in front of the private’s spear, fell over like so many toy soldiers. The spear could not go through their steel armor, however, so the warriors scrambled to their feet again, and by that time the private had knocked over another row of them.

  Then the captain brought down his battle-axe with such a strong blow that the private’s spear was shattered and knocked from his grasp, and he was helpless to fight any longer.

  The Nome King had left his throne and pressed through his warriors to the front ranks, so he could see what was going on; but as he faced Ozma and her friends the Scarecrow, as if aroused to action by the valor of the private, drew one of Billina’s eggs from his right jacket pocket and hurled it straight at the little monarch’s head.

  It struck him squarely in his left eye, where the egg smashed and scattered, as eggs will, and covered his face and hair and beard with its sticky contents.

  “Help, help!” screamed the King, clawing with his fingers at the egg, in a struggle to remove it.

  “An egg! an egg! Run for your lives!” shouted the captain of the Nomes, in a voice of horror.

  And how they DID run! The warriors fairly tumbled over one another in their efforts to escape the fatal poison of that awful egg, and those who could not rush down the winding stair fell off the balcony into the great cavern beneath, knocking over those who stood below them.

  Even while the King was still yelling for help his throne room became emptied of every one of his warriors, and before the monarch had managed to clear the egg away from his left eye the Scarecrow threw the second egg against his right eye, where it smashed and blinded him entirely. The King was unable to flee because he could not see which way to run; so he stood still and howled and shouted and screamed in abject fear.

  While this was going on, Billina flew over to Dorothy, and perching herself upon the Lion’s back the hen whispered eagerly to the girl:

  “Get his belt! Get the Nome King’s jeweled belt! It unbuckles in the back. Quick, Dorothy—quick!”

  18. The Fate of the Tin Woodman

  Dorothy obeyed. She ran at once behind the Nome King, who was still trying to free his eyes from the egg, and in a twinkling she had unbuckled his splendid jeweled belt and carried it away with her to her place beside the Tiger and Lion, where, because she did not know what else to do with it, she fastened it around her own slim waist.

  Just then the Chief Steward rushed in with a sponge and a bowl of water, and began mopping away the broken eggs from his master’s face. In a few minutes, and while all the party stood looking on, the King regained the use of his eyes, and the first thing he did was to glare wickedly upon the Scarecrow and exclaim:

  “I’ll make you suffer for this, you hay-stuffed dummy! Don’t you know eggs are poison to Nomes?”

  “Really,” said the Scarecrow, “they DON’T seem to agree with you, although I wonder why.”

  “They were strictly fresh and above suspicion,” said Billina. “You ought to be glad to get them.”

  “I’ll transform you all into scorpions!” cried the King, angrily, and began waving his arms and muttering magic words.

  But none of the people became scorpions, so the King stopped and looked at them in surprise.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Why, you are not wearing your magic belt,” replied the Chief Steward, after looking the King over carefully. “Where is it? What have you done with it?”

  The Nome King clapped his hand to his waist, and his rock colored face turned white as chalk.

  “It’s gone,” he cried, helplessly. “It’s gone, and I am ruined!”

  Dorothy now stepped forward and said:

  “Royal Ozma, and you, Queen of Ev, I welcome you and your people back to the land of the living. Billina has saved you from your troubles, and now we will leave this drea’ful place, and return to Ev as soon as poss’ble.”

  While the child spoke they could all see that she wore the magic belt, and a great cheer went up from all her friends, which was led by the voices of the Scarecrow and the private. But the Nome King did not join them. He crept back onto his throne like a whipped dog, and lay there bitterly bemoaning his defeat.

  “But we have not yet found my faithful follower, the Tin Woodman,” said Ozma to Dorothy, “and without him I do not wish to go away.”

  “Nor I,” replied Dorothy, quickly. “Wasn’t he in the palace?”

  “He must be there,” said Billina; “but I had no clue to guide me in guessing the Tin Woodman, so I must have missed him.”

  “We will go back into the rooms,” said Dorothy. “This magic belt, I am sure, will help us to find our dear old friend.”

  So she re-entered the palace, the doors of which still stood open, and everyone followed her except the Nome King, the Queen of Ev and Prince Evring. The mother had taken the little Prince in her lap and was fondling and kissing him lovingly, for he was her youngest born.

  But the others went with Dorothy, and when she came to the middle of the first room the girl waved her hand, as she had seen the King do, and commanded the Tin Woodman, whatever form he might then have, to resume his proper shape. No result followed this attempt, so Dorothy went into another room and repeated it, and so through all the rooms of the palace. Yet the Tin Woodman did not appear to them, nor could they imagine which among the thousands of ornaments was their transformed friend.

  Sadly they returned to the throne room, where the King, seeing that they had met with failure, jeered at Dorothy, saying:

  “You do not know how to use my belt, so it is of no use to you. Give it back to me and I will let you go free—you and all the people who came with you. As for the royal family of Ev, they are my slaves, and shall remain here.”

  “I shall keep the belt,” said Dorothy.

  “But how can you escape, without my consent?” asked the King.

  “Easily enough,” answered the girl. “All we need to do is to walk out the way that we came in.”

  “Oh, that’s all, is it?” sneered the King. “Well, where is the passage through which you entered this room?”

  They all looked around, but could not discover the place, for it had long since been closed. Dorothy, however, would not be dismayed. She waved her hand toward the seemingly solid wall of the cavern and said:

  “I command the passage to open!”

  Instantly the order was obeyed; the opening appeared and the passage lay plainly before them.

  The King was amazed, and all the others overjoyed.

  “Why, then, if the belt obeys you, were we unable to discover the Tin Woodman?” asked Ozma.

  “I can’t imagine,” said Dorothy.

  “See here, girl,” proposed the King, eagerly; “give me the belt, and I will tell you what shape the Tin Woodman was changed into, and then you can easily find him.”

  Dorothy hesitated, but Billina cried out:

  “Don’t you do it! If the Nome King gets the belt again he will make every one of us prisoners, for we will be in his
power. Only by keeping the belt, Dorothy, will you ever be able to leave this place in safety.”

  “I think that is true,” said the Scarecrow. “But I have another idea, due to my excellent brains. Let Dorothy transform the King into a goose-egg unless he agrees to go into the palace and bring out to us the ornament which is our friend Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman.”

  “A goose-egg!” echoed the horrified King. “How dreadful!”

  “Well, a goose-egg you will be unless you go and fetch us the ornament we want,” declared Billina, with a joyful chuckle.

  “You can see for yourself that Dorothy is able to use the magic belt all right,” added the Scarecrow.

  The Nome King thought it over and finally consented, for he did not want to be a goose-egg. So he went into the palace to get the ornament which was the transformation of the Tin Woodman, and they all awaited his return with considerable impatience, for they were anxious to leave this underground cavern and see the sunshine once more. But when the Nome King came back he brought nothing with him except a puzzled and anxious expression upon his face.

  “He’s gone!” he said. “The Tin Woodman is nowhere in the palace.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Ozma, sternly.

  “I’m very sure,” answered the King, trembling, “for I know just what I transformed him into, and exactly where he stood. But he is not there, and please don’t change me into a goose-egg, because I’ve done the best I could.”

  They were all silent for a time, and then Dorothy said:

  “There is no use punishing the Nome King any more, and I’m ‘fraid we’ll have to go away without our friend.”

  “If he is not here, we cannot rescue him,” agreed the Scarecrow, sadly. “Poor Nick! I wonder what has become of him.”

  “And he owed me six weeks back pay!” said one of the generals, wiping the tears from his eyes with his gold-laced coat sleeve.