Rinkitink in Oz
throne. Then the Nome King whispered a moment in the ear of Klik, who
nodded and left the room.
"Please make yourselves at home here for a few minutes, while I attend
to an errand," said the Nome King, getting up from the throne. "I shall
return pretty soon, when I hope to find you pieceful--ha, ha,
ha!--that's a joke you can't appreciate now but will later. Be
pieceful--that's the idea. Ho, ho, ho! How funny." Then he waddled from
the cavern, closing the door behind him.
"Well, why didn't you laugh when Kaliko laughed?" demanded the goat,
when they were left alone in the cavern.
"Because he means mischief of some sort," replied Rinkitink, "and we'll
laugh after the danger is over, Bilbil. There's an old adage that says:
'He laughs best who laughs last,' and the only way to laugh last is to
give the other fellow a chance. Where did that knife come from, I
wonder."
For a long, sharp knife suddenly appeared in the air near them, twisting
and turning from side to side and darting here and there in a dangerous
manner, without any support whatever. Then another knife became
visible--and another and another--until all the space in the royal
cavern seemed filled with them. Their sharp points and edges darted
toward Rinkitink and Bilbil perpetually and nothing could have saved
them from being cut to pieces except the protecting power of the Pink
Pearl. As it was, not a knife touched them and even Bilbil gave a gruff
laugh at the failure of Kaliko's clever magic.
The goat wandered here and there in the cavern, carrying Rinkitink upon
his back, and neither of them paid the slightest heed to the whirring
knives, although the glitter of the hundreds of polished blades was
rather trying to their eyes. Perhaps for ten minutes the knives darted
about them in bewildering fury; then they disappeared as suddenly as
they had appeared.
Kaliko cautiously stuck his head through the doorway and found the goat
chewing the embroidery of his royal cloak, which he had left lying over
the throne, while Rinkitink was reading his manuscript on "How to be
Good" and chuckling over its advice. The Nome King seemed greatly
disappointed as he came in and resumed his seat on the throne. Said
Rinkitink with a chuckle:
"We've really had a peaceful time, Kaliko, although not the pieceful
time you expected. Forgive me if I indulge in a laugh--hoo, hoo,
hoo-hee, heek-keek-eek! And now, tell me; aren't you getting tired of
trying to injure us?"
"Eh-heh," said the Nome King. "I see now that your magic can protect you
from all my arts. But is the boy Inga as well protected as Your Majesty
and the goat?"
"Why do you ask?" inquired Rinkitink, uneasy at the question because he
remembered he had not seen the little Prince of Pingaree that morning.
"Because," said Kaliko, "the boy has been undergoing trials far greater
and more dangerous than any you have encountered, and it has been
hundreds of years since anyone has been able to escape alive from the
perils of my Three Trick Caverns."
King Rinkitink was much alarmed at hearing this, for although he knew
that Inga possessed the Blue Pearl, that would only give to him
marvelous strength, and perhaps strength alone would not enable him to
escape from danger. But he would not let Kaliko see the fear he felt for
Inga's safety, so he said in a careless way:
"You're a mighty poor magician, Kaliko, and I'll give you my crown if
Inga hasn't escaped any danger you have threatened him with."
"Your whole crown is not worth one of the valuable diamonds in my
crown," answered the Nome King, "but I'll take it. Let us go at once,
therefore, and see what has become of the boy Prince, for if he is not
destroyed by this time I will admit he cannot be injured by any of the
magic arts which I have at my command."
He left the room, accompanied by Klik, who had now rejoined his master,
and by Rinkitink riding upon Bilbil. After traversing several of the
huge caverns they entered one that was somewhat more bright and cheerful
than the others, where the Nome King paused before a wall of rock. Then
Klik pressed a secret spring and a section of the wall opened and
disclosed the corridor where Prince Inga stood facing them.
"Tarts and tadpoles!" cried Kaliko in surprise. "The boy is still
alive!"
Dorothy to the Rescue
CHAPTER 20
One day when Princess Dorothy of Oz was visiting Glinda the Good, who is
Ozma's Royal Sorceress, she was looking through Glinda's Great Book of
Records--wherein is inscribed all important events that happen in every
part of the world--when she came upon the record of the destruction of
Pingaree, the capture of King Kitticut and Queen Garee and all their
people, and the curious escape of Inga, the boy Prince, and of King
Rinkitink and the talking goat. Turning over some of the following
pages, Dorothy read how Inga had found the Magic Pearls and was rowing
the silver-lined boat to Regos to try to rescue his parents.
The little girl was much interested to know how well Inga succeeded, but
she returned to the palace of Ozma at the Emerald City of Oz the next
day and other events made her forget the boy Prince of Pingaree for a
time. However, she was one day idly looking at Ozma's Magic Picture,
which shows any scene you may wish to see, when the girl thought of Inga
and commanded the Magic Picture to show what the boy was doing at that
moment.
It was the time when Inga and Rinkitink had followed the King of Regos
and Queen of Coregos to the Nome King's country and she saw them hiding
behind the rock as Cor and Gos passed them by after having placed the
King and Queen of Pingaree in the keeping of the Nome King. From that
time Dorothy followed, by means of the Magic Picture, the adventures of
Inga and his friends in the Nome King's caverns, and the danger and
helplessness of the poor boy aroused the little girl's pity and
indignation.
So she went to Ozma and told the lovely girl Ruler of Oz all about Inga
and Rinkitink.
"I think Kaliko is treating them dreadfully mean," declared Dorothy,
"and I wish you'd let me go to the Nome Country and help them out of
their troubles."
"Go, my dear, if you wish to," replied Ozma, "but I think it would be
best for you to take the Wizard with you."
"Oh, I'm not afraid of the nomes," said Dorothy, "but I'll be glad to
take the Wizard, for company. And may we use your Magic Carpet, Ozma?"
"Of course. Put the Magic Carpet in the Red Wagon and have the Sawhorse
take you and the Wizard to the edge of the desert. While you are gone,
Dorothy, I'll watch you in the Magic Picture, and if any danger
threatens you I'll see you are not harmed."
Dorothy thanked the Ruler of Oz and kissed her good-bye, for she was
determined to start at once. She found the Wizard of Oz, who was
planting shoe-trees in the garden, and when she told him Inga's story he
willingly agreed to accompany the little girl to the Nome King's
caverns. They had both been there before and had conquered the nomes
with ease, so they were not at all afraid.
The Wizard, who was a cheery little man with a bald head and a winning
smile, harnessed the Wooden Sawhorse to the Red Wagon and loaded on
Ozma's Magic Carpet. Then he and Dorothy climbed to the seat and the
Sawhorse started off and carried them swiftly through the beautiful Land
of Oz to the edge of the Deadly Desert that separated their fairyland
from the Nome Country.
Even Dorothy and the clever Wizard would not have dared to cross this
desert without the aid of the Magic Carpet, for it would have quickly
destroyed them; but when the roll of carpet had been placed upon the
edge of the sands, leaving just enough lying flat for them to stand
upon, the carpet straightway began to unroll before them and as they
walked on it continued to unroll, until they had safely passed over the
stretch of Deadly Desert and were on the border of the Nome King's
dominions.
This journey had been accomplished in a few minutes, although such a
distance would have required several days' travel had they not been
walking on the Magic Carpet. On arriving they at once walked toward the
entrance to the caverns of the nomes.
The Wizard carried a little black bag containing his tools of wizardry,
while Dorothy carried over her arm a covered basket in which she had
placed a dozen eggs, with which to conquer the nomes if she had any
trouble with them.
Eggs may seem to you to be a queer weapon with which to fight, but the
little girl well knew their value. The nomes are immortal; that is, they
do not perish, as mortals do, _unless they happen to come in contact
with an egg_. If an egg touches them--either the outer shell or the
inside of the egg--the nomes lose their charm of perpetual life and
thereafter are liable to die through accident or old age, just as all
humans are.
For this reason the sight of an egg fills a nome with terror and he will
do anything to prevent an egg from touching him, even for an instant.
So, when Dorothy took her basket of eggs with her, she knew that she was
more powerfully armed than if she had a regiment of soldiers at her
back.
The Wizard Finds an Enchantment
CHAPTER 21
After Kaliko had failed in his attempts to destroy his guests, as has
been related, the Nome King did nothing more to injure them but treated
them in a friendly manner. He refused, however, to permit Inga to see or
to speak with his father and mother, or even to know in what part of the
underground caverns they were confined.
"You are able to protect your lives and persons, I freely admit," said
Kaliko; "but I firmly believe you have no power, either of magic or
otherwise, to take from me the captives I have agreed to keep for King
Gos."
Inga would not agree to this. He determined not to leave the caverns
until he had liberated his father and mother, although he did not then
know how that could be accomplished. As for Rinkitink, the jolly King
was well fed and had a good bed to sleep upon, so he was not worrying
about anything and seemed in no hurry to go away.
Kaliko and Rinkitink were engaged in pitching a game with solid gold
quoits, on the floor of the royal chamber, and Inga and Bilbil were
watching them, when Klik came running in, his hair standing on end with
excitement, and cried out that the Wizard of Oz and Dorothy were
approaching.
Kaliko turned pale on hearing this unwelcome news and, abandoning his
game, went to sit in his ivory throne and try to think what had brought
these fearful visitors to his domain.
"Who is Dorothy?" asked Inga.
"She is a little girl who once lived in Kansas," replied Klik, with a
shudder, "but she now lives in Ozma's palace at the Emerald City and is
a Princess of Oz--which means that she is a terrible foe to deal with."
"Doesn't she like the nomes?" inquired the boy.
"It isn't that," said King Kaliko, with a groan, "but she insists on the
nomes being goody-goody, which is contrary to their natures. Dorothy
gets angry if I do the least thing that is wicked, and tries to make me
stop it, and that naturally makes me downhearted. I can't imagine why
she has come here just now, for I've been behaving very well lately. As
for that Wizard of Oz, he's chock-full of magic that I can't overcome,
for he learned it from Glinda, who is the most powerful sorceress in the
world. Woe is me! Why didn't Dorothy and the Wizard stay in Oz, where
they belong?"
Inga and Rinkitink listened to this with much joy, for at once the idea
came to them both to plead with Dorothy to help them. Even Bilbil
pricked up his ears when he heard the Wizard of Oz mentioned, and the
goat seemed much less surly, and more thoughtful than usual.