Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
sword and balanced it very skillfully upon the end of his nose. But even
that did not satisfy the Princess.
Just then his eye fell upon the lanterns and the can of kerosene oil
which Zeb had brought from the car of his balloon, and he got a clever
idea from those commonplace things.
"Your Highness," said he, "I will now proceed to prove my magic by
creating two suns that you have never seen before; also I will exhibit a
Destroyer much more dreadful than your Clinging Vines."
So he placed Dorothy upon one side of him and the boy upon the other and
set a lantern upon each of their heads.
"Don't laugh," he whispered to them, "or you will spoil the effect of my
magic."
Then, with much dignity and a look of vast importance upon his wrinkled
face, the Wizard got out his match-box and lighted the two lanterns. The
glare they made was very small when compared with the radiance of the
six great colored suns; but still they gleamed steadily and clearly. The
Mangaboos were much impressed because they had never before seen any
light that did not come directly from their suns.
Next the Wizard poured a pool of oil from the can upon the glass floor,
where it covered quite a broad surface. When he lighted the oil a
hundred tongues of flame shot up, and the effect was really imposing.
"Now, Princess," exclaimed the Wizard, "those of your advisors who
wished to throw us into the Garden of Clinging Vines must step within
this circle of light. If they advised you well, and were in the right,
they will not be injured in any way. But if any advised you wrongly, the
light will wither him."
The advisors of the Princess did not like this test; but she commanded
them to step into the flame and one by one they did so, and were
scorched so badly that the air was soon filled with an odor like that of
baked potatoes. Some of the Mangaboos fell down and had to be dragged
from the fire, and all were so withered that it would be necessary to
plant them at once.
"Sir," said the Princess to the Wizard, "you are greater than any
Sorcerer we have ever known. As it is evident that my people have
advised me wrongly, I will not cast you three people into the dreadful
Garden of the Clinging Vines; but your animals must be driven into the
Black Pit in the mountain, for my subjects cannot bear to have them
around."
The Wizard was so pleased to have saved the two children and himself
that he said nothing against this decree; but when the Princess had gone
both Jim and Eureka protested they did not want to go to the Black Pit,
and Dorothy promised she would do all that she could to save them from
such a fate.
For two or three days after this--if we call days the periods between
sleep, there being no night to divide the hours into days--our friends
were not disturbed in any way. They were even permitted to occupy the
House of the Sorcerer in peace, as if it had been their own, and to
wander in the gardens in search of food.
Once they came near to the enclosed Garden of the Clinging Vines, and
walking high into the air looked down upon it with much interest. They
saw a mass of tough green vines all matted together and writhing and
twisting around like a nest of great snakes. Everything the vines
touched they crushed, and our adventurers were indeed thankful to have
escaped being cast among them.
Whenever the Wizard went to sleep he would take the nine tiny piglets
from his pocket and let them run around on the floor of his room to
amuse themselves and get some exercise; and one time they found his
glass door ajar and wandered into the hall and then into the bottom part
of the great dome, walking through the air as easily as Eureka could.
They knew the kitten, by this time, so they scampered over to where she
lay beside Jim and commenced to frisk and play with her.
The cab-horse, who never slept long at a time, sat upon his haunches and
watched the tiny piglets and the kitten with much approval.
"Don't be rough!" he would call out, if Eureka knocked over one of the
round, fat piglets with her paw; but the pigs never minded, and enjoyed
the sport very greatly.
Suddenly they looked up to find the room filled with the silent,
solemn-eyed Mangaboos. Each of the vegetable folks bore a branch covered
with sharp thorns, which was thrust defiantly toward the horse, the
kitten and the piglets.
"Here--stop this foolishness!" Jim roared, angrily; but after being
pricked once or twice he got upon his four legs and kept out of the way
of the thorns.
The Mangaboos surrounded them in solid ranks, but left an opening to the
doorway of the hall; so the animals slowly retreated until they were
driven from the room and out upon the street. Here were more of the
vegetable people with thorns, and silently they urged the now frightened
creatures down the street. Jim had to be careful not to step upon the
tiny piglets, who scampered under his feet grunting and squealing, while
Eureka, snarling and biting at the thorns pushed toward her, also tried
to protect the pretty little things from injury. Slowly but steadily the
heartless Mangaboos drove them on, until they had passed through the
city and the gardens and come to the broad plains leading to the
mountain.
"What does all this mean, anyhow?" asked the horse, jumping to escape a
thorn.
"Why, they are driving us toward the Black Pit, into which they
threatened to cast us," replied the kitten. "If I were as big as you
are, Jim, I'd fight these miserable turnip-roots!"
"What would you do?" enquired Jim.
"I'd kick out with those long legs and iron-shod hoofs."
"All right," said the horse; "I'll do it."
An instant later he suddenly backed toward the crowd of Mangaboos and
kicked out his hind legs as hard as he could. A dozen of them smashed
together and tumbled to the ground, and seeing his success Jim kicked
again and again, charging into the vegetable crowd, knocking them in
all directions and sending the others scattering to escape his iron
heels. Eureka helped him by flying into the faces of the enemy and
scratching and biting furiously, and the kitten ruined so many vegetable
complexions that the Mangaboos feared her as much as they did the horse.
But the foes were too many to be repulsed for long. They tired Jim and
Eureka out, and although the field of battle was thickly covered with
mashed and disabled Mangaboos, our animal friends had to give up at last
and allow themselves to be driven to the mountain.
CHAPTER 7.
INTO THE BLACK PIT AND OUT AGAIN
When they came to the mountain it proved to be a rugged, towering chunk
of deep green glass, and looked dismal and forbidding in the extreme.
Half way up the steep was a yawning cave, black as night beyond the
point where the rainbow rays of the colored suns reached into it.
The Mangaboos drove the horse and the kitten and the piglets into this
dark hole and then, having pushed the buggy in after them--for it seemed
some of them had dragged it all the way from the domed hall--they began
to pile big glass rocks within the entrance, so that the prisoners could
not get out again.
"This is dreadful!" groaned Jim. "It will be about the end of our
adventures, I guess."
"If the Wizard was here," said one of the piglets, sobbing bitterly, "he
would not see us suffer so."
"We ought to have called him and Dorothy when we were first attacked,"
added Eureka. "But never mind; be brave, my friends, and I will go and
tell our masters where you are, and get them to come to your rescue."
The mouth of the hole was nearly filled up now, but the kitten gave a
leap through the remaining opening and at once scampered up into the
air. The Mangaboos saw her escape, and several of them caught up their
thorns and gave chase, mounting through the air after her. Eureka,
however, was lighter than the Mangaboos, and while they could mount only
about a hundred feet above the earth the kitten found she could go
nearly two hundred feet. So she ran along over their heads until she had
left them far behind and below and had come to the city and the House of
the Sorcerer. There she entered in at Dorothy's window in the dome and
aroused her from her sleep.
As soon as the little girl knew what had happened she awakened the
Wizard and Zeb, and at once preparations were made to go to the rescue
of Jim and the piglets. The Wizard carried his satchel, which was quite
heavy, and Zeb carried the two lanterns and the oil can. Dorothy's
wicker suit-case was still under the seat of the buggy, and by good
fortune the boy had also placed the harness in the buggy when he had
taken it off from Jim to let the horse lie down and rest. So there was
nothing for the girl to carry but the kitten, which she held close to
her bosom and tried to comfort, for its little heart was still beating
rapidly.
Some of the Mangaboos discovered them as soon as they left the House of
the Sorcerer; but when they started toward the mountain the vegetable
people allowed them to proceed without interference, yet followed in a
crowd behind them so that they could not go back again.
Before long they neared the Black Pit, where a busy swarm of Mangaboos,
headed by their Princess, was engaged in piling up glass rocks before
the entrance.
"Stop, I command you!" cried the Wizard, in an angry tone, and at once
began pulling down the rocks to liberate Jim and the piglets. Instead of
opposing him in this they stood back in silence until he had made a
good-sized hole in the barrier, when by order of the Princess they all
sprang forward and thrust out their sharp thorns.
Dorothy hopped inside the opening to escape being pricked, and Zeb and
the Wizard, after enduring a few stabs from the thorns, were glad to
follow her. At once the Mangaboos began piling up the rocks of glass
again, and as the little man realized that they were all about to be
entombed in the mountain he said to the children:
"My dears, what shall we do? Jump out and fight?"
"What's the use?" replied Dorothy. "I'd as soon die here as live much
longer among those cruel and heartless people."
"That's the way I feel about it," remarked Zeb, rubbing his wounds.
"I've had enough of the Mangaboos."
"All right," said the Wizard; "I'm with you, whatever you decide. But we
can't live long in this cavern, that's certain."
Noticing that the light was growing dim he picked up his nine piglets,
patted each one lovingly on its fat little head, and placed them
carefully in his inside pocket.
Zeb struck a match and lighted one of the lanterns. The rays of the
colored suns were now shut out from them forever, for the last chinks
had been filled up in the wall that separated their prison from the Land
of the Mangaboos.
"How big is this hole?" asked Dorothy.
"I'll explore it and see," replied the boy.
So he carried the lantern back for quite a distance, while Dorothy and
the Wizard followed at his side. The cavern did not come to an end, as
they had expected it would, but slanted upward through the great glass
mountain, running in a direction that promised to lead them to the side
opposite the Mangaboo country.
"It isn't a bad road," observed the Wizard, "and if we followed it it
might lead us to some place that is more comfortable than this black
pocket we are now in. I suppose the vegetable folk were always afraid to
enter this cavern because it is dark; but we have our lanterns to light
the way, so I propose that we start out and discover where this tunnel
in the mountain leads to."
The others agreed readily to this sensible suggestion, and at once the
boy began to harness Jim to the buggy. When all was in readiness the