THE DEFIANCE OF UGU THE SHOEMAKER
The delay caused by Scraps had prevented anyone from running to the
shelves to secure the magic instruments so badly needed. Even Cayke
neglected to get her diamond-studded dishpan because she was watching
the Patchwork Girl. And now the magician had opened his trap door and
appeared in his golden cage again, frowning angrily because his
prisoners had been able to turn their upside-down prison right side up.
“Which of you has dared defy my magic?” he shouted in a terrible voice.
“It was I,” answered Dorothy calmly.
“Then I shall destroy you, for you are only an Earth girl and no
fairy,” he said, and began to mumble some magic words.
Dorothy now realized that Ugu must be treated as an enemy, so she
advanced toward the corner in which he sat, saying as she went, “I am
not afraid of you, Mr. Shoemaker, and I think you’ll be sorry, pretty
soon, that you’re such a bad man. You can’t destroy me, and I won’t
destroy you, but I’m going to punish you for your wickedness.”
Ugu laughed, a laugh that was not nice to hear, and then he waved his
hand. Dorothy was halfway across the room when suddenly a wall of glass
rose before her and stopped her progress. Through the glass she could
see the magician sneering at her because she was a weak little girl,
and this provoked her. Although the glass wall obliged her to halt, she
instantly pressed both hands to her Magic Belt and cried in a loud
voice, “Ugu the Shoemaker, by the magic virtues of the Magic Belt, I
command you to become a dove!”
The magician instantly realized he was being enchanted, for he could
feel his form changing. He struggled desperately against the
enchantment, mumbling magic words and making magic passes with his
hands. And in one way he succeeded in defeating Dorothy’s purpose, for
while his form soon changed to that of a gray dove, the dove was of an
enormous size, bigger even than Ugu had been as a man, and this feat he
had been able to accomplish before his powers of magic wholly deserted
him.
And the dove was not gentle, as doves usually are, for Ugu was terribly
enraged at the little girl’s success. His books had told him nothing of
the Nome King’s Magic Belt, the Country of the Nomes being outside the
Land of Oz. He knew, however, that he was likely to be conquered unless
he made a fierce fight, so he spread his wings and rose in the air and
flew directly toward Dorothy. The Wall of Glass had disappeared the
instant Ugu became transformed.
Dorothy had meant to command the Belt to transform the magician into a
Dove of Peace, but in her excitement she forgot to say more than
“dove,” and now Ugu was not a Dove of Peace by any means, but rather a
spiteful Dove of War. His size made his sharp beak and claws very
dangerous, but Dorothy was not afraid when he came darting toward her
with his talons outstretched and his sword-like beak open. She knew the
Magic Belt would protect its wearer from harm.
But the Frogman did not know that fact and became alarmed at the little
girl’s seeming danger. So he gave a sudden leap and leaped full upon
the back of the great dove. Then began a desperate struggle. The dove
was as strong as Ugu had been, and in size it was considerably bigger
than the Frogman. But the Frogman had eaten the zosozo, and it had made
him fully as strong as Ugu the Dove. At the first leap he bore the dove
to the floor, but the giant bird got free and began to bite and claw
the Frogman, beating him down with its great wings whenever he
attempted to rise. The thick, tough skin of the big frog was not easily
damaged, but Dorothy feared for her champion, and by again using the
transformation power of the Magic Belt, she made the dove grow small
until it was no larger than a canary bird. Ugu had not lost his
knowledge of magic when he lost his shape as a man, and he now realized
it was hopeless to oppose the power of the Magic Belt and knew that his
only hope of escape lay in instant action. So he quickly flew into the
golden jeweled dishpan he had stolen from Cayke the Cookie Cook, and as
birds can talk as well as beasts or men in the Fairyland of Oz, he
muttered the magic word that was required and wished himself in the
Country of the Quadlings, which was as far away from the wicker castle
as he believed he could get.
Our friends did not know, of course, what Ugu was about to do. They saw
the dishpan tremble an instant and then disappear, the dove
disappearing with it, and although they waited expectantly for some
minutes for the magician’s return, Ugu did not come back again. “Seems
to me,” said the Wizard in a cheerful voice, “that we have conquered
the wicked magician more quickly than we expected to.”
“Don’t say ‘we.’ Dorothy did it!” cried the Patchwork Girl, turning
three somersaults in succession and then walking around on her hands.
“Hurrah for Dorothy!”
“I thought you said you did not know how to use the magic of the Nome
King’s Belt,” said the Wizard to Dorothy.
“I didn’t know at that time,” she replied, “but afterward I remembered
how the Nome King once used the Magic Belt to enchant people and
transform ’em into ornaments and all sorts of things, so I tried some
enchantments in secret, and after a while I transformed the Sawhorse
into a potato masher and back again, and the Cowardly Lion into a
pussycat and back again, and then I knew the thing would work all
right.”
“When did you perform those enchantments?” asked the Wizard, much
surprised.
“One night when all the rest of you were asleep but Scraps, and she had
gone chasing moonbeams.”
“Well,” remarked the Wizard, “your discovery has certainly saved us a
lot of trouble, and we must all thank the Frogman, too, for making such
a good fight. The dove’s shape had Ugu’s evil disposition inside it,
and that made the monster bird dangerous.”
The Frogman was looking sad because the bird’s talons had torn his
pretty clothes, but he bowed with much dignity at this well-deserved
praise. Cayke, however, had squatted on the floor and was sobbing
bitterly. “My precious dishpan is gone!” she wailed. “Gone, just as I
had found it again!”
“Never mind,” said Trot, trying to comfort her, “it’s sure to be
SOMEWHERE, so we’ll cert’nly run across it some day.”
“Yes indeed,” added Betsy, “now that we have Ozma’s Magic Picture, we
can tell just where the Dove went with your dishpan. They all
approached the Magic Picture, and Dorothy wished it to show the
enchanted form of Ugu the Shoemaker, wherever it might be. At once
there appeared in the frame of the Picture a scene in the far Quadling
Country, where the Dove was perched disconsolately on the limb of a
tree and the jeweled dishpan lay on the ground just underneath the
limb.
“But where is the place? How far or how near?” asked Cayke anxiously.
“The Book of Records will tell us that,” answered the Wizard. So they
looked in the Great Book and read the following:
“Ugu the Magician, being transformed into a dove by Princess Dorothy of
Oz, has used the magic of the golden dishpan to carry him instantly to
the northeast corner of the Quadling Country.”
“Don’t worry, Cayke, for the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman are in that
part of the country looking for Ozma, and they’ll surely find your
dishpan.”
“Good gracious!” exclaimed Button-Bright. “We’ve forgot all about Ozma.
Let’s find out where the magician hid her.”
Back to the Magic Picture they trooped, but when they wished to see
Ozma wherever she might be hidden, only a round black spot appeared in
the center of the canvas. “I don’t see how THAT can be Ozma!” said
Dorothy, much puzzled.
“It seems to be the best the Magic Picture can do, however,” said the
Wizard, no less surprised. “If it’s an enchantment, looks as if the
magician had transformed Ozma into a chunk of pitch.”