The King of the Silver Mountain
"I hear water," worried Handy as Snorpus suddenly vanished round a bend
in the corridor. "Oh, dear--ear, I do hope we won't have to go swimming
again."
"Then mind your manners!" warned the Royal Ox, giving his horns a
little shake. "Remember it is safer to keep on the right side of Kings
and Giants, and if we are to learn anything about Kerry we must be
extremely patient and polite."
A loud gasp interrupted Nox's speech, for Handy Mandy, well in the
lead, had also stepped round the bend. Hastening to catch up with her,
the Ox, too, gave an involuntary exclamation of wonder and astonishment.
The silver corridor had brought them into a second cavern, smaller than
the entrance cave, but so light and lacy, so bright and beautiful, for
once Handy Mandy stood perfectly speechless. The silver sides of the
dome-shaped grotto had been carved to show all the historical figures
and characters of ancient Oz. Wizards, giants, knights, witches,
huntsmen, robbers, kings, queens and their patient subjects marched in
a splendid procession round the walls. Sparkling lavender sand covered
the floor and a lake of shimmering quicksilver took up the entire
center, lapping the shore with its swift soundless waves. On a small
island of purest amethyst in the middle of this lake the King of the
Silver Mountain reclined at ease. His back was toward the newcomers and
he seemed lost in some deep and entirely satisfactory contemplation.
"A king, if I ever saw one," breathed Nox moistly in Handy's ear.
With a wordless nod the Goat Girl agreed, for in this long, indolent
yet majestic figure Handy felt she was seeing royalty for the first
time. The unusual height of the silver monarch was at once apparent
and his tight-fitting suit of deepest purple, without ornament save for
his jeweled belt and sword, set off his handsome figure to the best
advantage. His hair, of an astonishing thickness, was as silver as his
cavern. When he turned his head, as he presently did at a little cough
from Snorpus, Handy saw that his eyes were of a clear and piercing
violet. Quietly and without hurry, the Silver King rose and, picking
up his filigreed crown, set it firmly on his head. Then, retrieving a
long-stemmed pipe from a crevice in the rock, he established himself in
a seat carved from the amethyst and looked inquiringly across at his
visitors.
"So," he whistled, his eyes sparkling with lively interest as they
rested for a long moment on the Goat Girl. "Two very, VERY clever
travellers."
"Why do you say that?" blurted out Handy, and was instantly overcome at
her own boldness in speaking to so grand a person.
"The fact that you are here in this cavern proves you are clever,"
answered the King, leaning over to fill his pipe in the quicksilver
lake. "You have opened the door in the mountain that does not open;
passed the impassable guardian and keeper of that door--SNORPUS!!" The
King's pleasant voice changed so quick and cruelly, Handy almost lost
her balance. "What have you to say for yourself, you lazy Bozwokel?"
roared His Majesty, his eyes flashing flinty sparks of purple. "I'll
have you potted for this, potted and reduced to a smithering smith, do
you hear?"
Poor Snorpus, who could not have helped hearing the King's booming
sentence, dropped to his knees and began pleading, explaining and
blubbering all in the same breath. Even Nox, startled as he was, tried
to put in a good word for him. But the muttering monarch, paying no
attention to any of them, had lifted his silver pipe to his lips and an
enormous bubble was rising from the bowl. Handy, with chattering teeth,
watched the bubble grow larger and larger, float off the pipe and hover
over the unlucky head of the Giant. As Snorpus tried in vain to dodge,
the bubble broke with the sound like a doomsday bell, enveloping him
in a cloudy mist. When it cleared away, the Giant was indeed reduced,
coming now scarcely to Handy's shoulder.
"How about it, shall we run?" whispered the Goat Girl as the King began
to blow another bubble. "Boy, do I feel a draft!"
"But he's not mad at us!" answered the Ox, ducking nervously as the
second bubble soared over their heads. "Wait! Be patient, remember
the little King." As Nox finished speaking the bubble sailed off
and away down one of the silver corridors leading away from the
royal cavern. Presently they heard a bell ringing in the distance
as the bubble broke, and before you could say Pop Robinson seventy
silver-jacketed little bell boys came trotting into the cave.
"Take this poor failure to Nifflepok and see that he is potted,"
directed the King sternly, setting down his bubble pipe. "Have Timano
guard the mountain door and see that I am not disturbed. Important
matters have come up this morning, important matters!"
"Yes! Yes! Your Highness! It shall be done, Your Excellency!" mumbled
the bell boys, pushing poor Snorpus ahead of them.
"Watch yourselves! Watch yourselves!" warned the little Giant as he was
rudely hustled out of the royal presence.
"Now," smiled the Silver King, positively beaming upon his visitors,
"now we can proceed with our conversation. Sorry to trouble you with
this small matter, but discipline, as the old army officers will tell
you, discipline must be maintained."
"Humph!" sniffed Handy Mandy under her breath, looking with dislike
and disillusion at the royal figure on the rocks. "The Giant was right,
you're a fellow who'll bear watching." Fortunately her words did not
carry, and lazily glancing at them through his long purple lashes the
Silver King continued his speech.
"Since you have so easily entered my mountain," he observed blandly,
"I assume you have some powerful magic treasure or appliance in your
possession. Am I right?" At the sudden forward lurch of the Royal Ox
and Handy Mandy's surprised expression, the King gave a satisfied
little nod. "Fine!" he chuckled, rubbing his hands together briskly.
"And now, let us waste no more time. WHO sent you? WHAT have you to
offer? As you doubtless know, the Wizard of Wutz pays well for magic
treasures and formulas."
"Wizard!" choked Handy Mandy, carelessly clapping her iron hand to her
forehead and knocking herself over backward. "Wizard!" she repeated,
dazedly picking herself up. "But I thought you were a King?"
"I am both!" stated the owner of the cavern proudly. "I am King of the
Silver Mountain and also the Wizard of Wutz, second in importance only
to Glinda and the Wizard of Oz. And, ha! ha! it won't be long before I
am the ONLY wizard, the sole, supreme and only Wizard of Oz! Not long!
Not long!" Again the Silver King rubbed his hands exultantly together.
"I have my secret agents in every Kingdom in this country and even in
the Emerald City of Oz," he told them impressively. "I already have the
Record Book of Glinda, the Good Sorceress, and many more of the magic
treasures of Oz, and soon I will have them all--ALL! My agents are
clever and I have trained them well."
"But I thought magic was against the law!" cried Nox with an outraged
snort. "I understood no one was allowed to practice magic but Ozma,
Glinda and the Wizard of Oz!"
"Then why are you here?" demanded Wutz sternly. "YOU have been
practicing magic or you could not have entered this mountain. Come,
now, let us stop all this nonsense and get down to silver tacks and
business. What have you to offer? Who sent you--Three, Six, Nine, Five
or Eleven?"
As you can imagine, this was perfect jargon to Nox and the Goat Girl,
but Handy Mandy, convinced by this time that the Silver King was both
sly and dangerous, resolved to fall in with his little supposition and
see what would come of it.
"Nine sent us," she answered boldly, while Nox looked across at her in
perfect stupefaction.
"You don't say! I rather thought you came from the Munchkin Country,"
mused the Wizard. "Something in the way the Ox talked, though you,
yourself, are not a native Ozian?"
"No!" Handy said noncommittally, and rather pleased she had chosen
Nine, since this number had something to do with the Munchkins.
"Did Nine say anything about the silver hammer?" asked the King,
twinkling his eyes at the Goat Girl.
"He told us nothing," stated Handy quite truthfully, this time.
"That's Nine for you," fumed the King discontentedly. "He's the slowest
and most unsatisfactory agent I have. Two years searching for that
hammer and no report yet. I've a good notion to kick him out and put
little King Kerry back on the throne. A bargain's a bargain and I've
kept my part. Besides, I've got to have that hammer before I can make
myself supreme ruler in Oz. Why, it's the second most important magic
in the four Kingdoms!" At this surprising statement Handy pricked up
her ears.
"What did you say about Kerry?" panted Nox, almost stepping into the
quicksilver lake at mention of the little King.
"Nothing. I was talking about Nine," scowled the Wizard. "If that
fellow does not show some action soon, I'll--I'll--" The King clenched
his fists and looked so terribly angry that Handy was afraid he was
going to blow bubbles again. But instead he glared across the lake and
demanded impatiently, "Well, if you didn't bring the silver hammer,
what did you bring?"
"A magic flower," explained the Goat Girl hurriedly, and before Nox
could give away the fact that they did have the silver hammer. She
could guess from the expression in his eye that he was about to offer
the hammer in exchange for Kerry.
"A flower!" bawled Wutz, his face turning from red to purple. "My
caves are full of flowers, frosted silver lilies, long-stemmed sterling
roses, daisies and violets with jeweled centers. I can grow any kind of
flower I wish. How dare you take up my time with a flower! PAH! Go back
and tell Nine he had better look out--he's flirting with dismissal and
destruction."
"But this flower saves you from injury when you fall," stammered Handy,
heartily wishing she had never got herself into such a controversy.
"Fall!" sneered the Silver King, simply bounding off his throne. "I
NEVER fall!" and had hardly finished speaking before he caught his toe
on a jutting amethyst and pitched headlong to the rocks. Horrified, and
without waiting for the irate monarch to regain his feet, Handy and
Nox began to run toward one of the outgoing corridors, the Goat Girl
colliding as she ran with a plump little dignitary in a jeweled robe
and high hat.
"Your Highness! Your Highness!" puffed the little fat man, stopping
long enough to glare at Handy Mandy. "At last our efforts are to be
crowned with success! Five has but this moment arrived with--with--"
"With what?" demanded the King, springing lightly as a cat to his feet.
"With a jug," exulted the little fat man, tossing his high hat into
the air. "With a jug that was Rug and the magic picture of Queen Ozma
herself."
"Ah, SPLENDID!" beamed the monarch, who could turn his smiles and
rages on and off like electric lights. "That will be a lesson to those
Emerald City-ites!" Then suddenly remembering Handy and Nox and his
undignified fall, he shouted shrilly:
"Stop those imposters! Stop them, Nifflepok, and lock them up in the
prison pits till I have time to demolish them. Hah! We'll pot the Ox's
tongue, make soup of his tail, saddles and boots of his hide and use
his head for a hat rack. As for that seven-armed monstrosity, she shall
work in the polishing caves for the rest of her stupid life."
"I'll polish your nose first!" promised Handy, shaking all her fists at
the King.
"Better come quiet," warned Nifflepok, looking so worried Handy felt a
little sorry for him. "Wutz'll blow bubbles if you make him too mad,
and that'll be much worse than being locked up, you know."
"Oh, let's go with the Little High-Hat," groaned Nox, blinking his eyes
at Handy to remind her they still had his horns and the silver hammer.
"For my part, I'd like a little peace and quiet."
"Take 'em away! Take 'em away!" ordered the King, stamping up and down
his rocky island. "Send in Five! Send in Five at once!"
"Come along, then," said Nifflepok, being careful to keep out of the
way of Nox's horns. "Come, give me your hand, maiden. Not that one! Not
THAT one!" he howled dismally as the Goat Girl clasped his outstretched
fingers in her iron hand. "Let go! Let go!"
"Let's go! Let's go!" chuckled Handy Mandy mischievously. And squealing
with pain the little Minister hurried them down a long dim passageway.