The Wizard's Bargain!
While Nifflepok had been interviewing Five, Handy and Nox had been
having a troublesome conference of their own. Each plan they devised
for finding the little King and escaping from the Silver King's
Mountain proved impractical. To summon the hammer elf to release them
from the prison pit would probably rouse the underground guards and
minions of the wizard, and give Wutz himself an opportunity to steal
the hammer. To tap the hammer lightly and ask the advice of Himself
had next seemed a good idea, but as Nox quickly pointed out, that, too,
was dangerous.
"In a wizard's den like this, anything can happen," groaned the Ox,
looking around with a gloomy eye. "How do we know we are not being
watched at this very moment? If you so much as show that hammer,
somebody may pounce in here and snatch it away, which will leave us
with nothing to protect ourselves with in a last emergency--except that
blue flower, my horns and your hands."
Handy did not like the sound of "last emergency," but even Handy
realized they would not escape from the mountain without some sort
of battle. To the free and sun-loving mountain girl every minute
underground was sheer torture. She longed for a breath of the pure
upper air, and the unreal light and pale faces of Wutz's underground
citizens and workers filled her with pity and loathing. "Of course, no
matter how long they leave us here, your horn of plenty will keep us
from starving, but if we don't soon find some way out, I believe I'll
explode!" she choked in a desperate voice.
"Let's look at the message in that silver ball again," suggested Nox
unexpectedly. "Are you sure you read it all, m'lass? There might have
been directions on the other side."
"I don't think so," said Handy, shaking her head. Then, because action
of any sort was a relief, she deftly twisted off Nox's left horn and
tilted the silver balls into one of her always handy palms. The first
ball when she opened it contained nothing further than the silver key.
In the center of the second lay the same folded paper, but this time
when Handy unfolded the paper there was a new message inside.
"Wait!" cautioned the little slip of paper in small blue letters. "Do
nothing until the wizard appears."
"Oh," breathed the Royal Ox, touching the paper gently with his nose.
"Someone is helping us."
"Then I'd better keep this silver ball in my pocket," decided the
Goat Girl, "where I can easily get it. In a tight corner I might not
have a chance to unscrew your horn. Dear--ear, how puzzling it all
grows! So we're to hear from the wizard again. Whist! What was that?"
As Handy, with her wooden hand, slipped the first ball back into the
horn, with her leather hand screwed the horn back on Nox's head and
with one of her best white hands stuffed the second ball and message
into her pocket, they heard agitated footsteps pattering along the
outside corridor. After a tense moment, however, they died away, and
exchanging a relieved glance, Nox and Handy settled down to wait for
the wizard.
The footsteps, as you have already guessed, belonged to Nifflepok.
Peering in at them through an invisible window, the King's messenger
had been just in time to see Handy shaking the silver balls from the
golden horn. Without waiting to see what use they would make of this
curious magic, Nifflepok rushed back to inform his master.
"They are wizards!" he panted, bursting unceremoniously into the Silver
King's den. "The magic is in the ox's horn. With my own eyes I saw the
seven-armed maiden shaking silver balls from his horn."
"What do _I_ care about silver balls?" snarled Wutz, who was in a
terrible temper. "If I had them here I'd bounce you over the head
with them." The den was full of sulphurous smoke, but the earthenware
jug still stood unchanged on the table before him. "The magic in the
Emerald City is still better than mine," hissed the Silver Monarch, his
voice quivering with anger and disappointment. "I've tried every single
formula in my book of incantations, every straight and crooked pass in
the magician's manual, every powder and potion on my shelves, and this
ugly jug is still a jug and nothing but a jug! What are we going to
do?" he yelled furiously. "Think of something, you noddle-headed pig! I
must have the help of this little Gnome King, but how'm I going to get
him out of the jug?"
"Perhaps, with a little more time," faltered Nifflepok, twisting his
high hat nervously in his hands.
"Time! TIME!" exploded the wizard. "When did time ever break an
enchantment?" Snatching up a pair of silver pliers he flung them
wrathfully at his assistant. Nifflepok, fortunately for his head,
caught the dangerous missile in his hat, and darting behind a tall
cabinet, looked pleadingly out at his unreasonable Master. "Wait!
Wait!" he begged earnestly as Wutz with a menacing frown took up his
silver bubble pipe. "I HAVE thought of something. Make these Munchkins
break the Gnome King's enchantment. They have passed all the hazards
of our mountain unharmed. Undoubtedly the girl is a sorceress and the
Ox a powerful magician in disguise. Let them do this trifling service
for your Majesty in return for the useless captive we are holding for
Number Nine."
"Hm--mmmm!" Deliberately the Silver Monarch put down his pipe. "That's
not a bad idea, Niffle, not a bad idea at all." Picking up the jug,
Wutz brushed rudely by his trembling little Minister and hurried out
of his workshop. A few minutes later, he stood bowing and smiling
before the two travelers in the prisoner's pit. But warned by the
message in the silver ball, his entrance through the invisible door
neither frightened nor impressed Handy Mandy or the Royal Ox.
"So here you are at last," exclaimed the Goat Girl, looking the Silver
Monarch sternly in the eye. "And about time, too. How dare you imprison
us in this miserable pit for no reason at all?"
"Oh, yes, there is a reason," stated Wutz a little surprised at Handy's
defiance. "You broke into my mountain without invitation or permission
and as you are nothing but a pair of trespassers, you certainly
deserve imprisonment and even destruction."
"Nonsense," snorted the Royal Ox, lurching forward heavily. "We came
here seeking a lost boy whom you are unlawfully holding captive. As
soon as you release the little King of Keretaria, we will take him and
leave this mountain!"
"And the sooner you tell us where he is, the better!" added Handy,
snapping her thirty-five fingers under the Silver King's nose.
"Ah, you think so?" sneered Wutz. "Well, nothing is ever given for
nothing in this mountain, but I may give you a chance to earn the boy's
release. Here in my hand is a jug, an ordinary enough looking jug. With
the magic you have in your possession, you must transform this jug to
its proper shape. If you succeed, you and the Ox and the Boy King of
Keretaria may leave my mountain unharmed. If you fail, ha ha!" The
heartless wizard threw back his head and laughed uproariously. "If you
fail, the walls of this pit will contract until you are--well, shall
we say--obliterated? To keep your part of the bargain and perform this
slight service I will give you _one half_ hour. Here is the jug, and in
case you fail, GOOD-BYE!"
"Good Gillikins!" whistled Nox, as the wizard strode through the
invisible door and left them alone. "What does that fool think we are,
wizards--magicians--necromancers?" Groaning and snorting, he began to
gallop round and round the hot little pit.
"Look out! Look out! You'll break the jug," warned Handy, snatching it
up in her arms. "And for goat's sake stop that galloping! I'm dizzy
enough as it is."
"But you heard what he said?" lowed the Ox, coming to a trembling stop
beside her. "What are we to do? We know nothing of magic or magic
transformations!" In their distress and excitement, they both forgot
there might be a message to help them in the silver ball, and Handy,
taking the jug in one of her white hands, surveyed it with horror and
curiosity.
"It's so old and ugly now," said the Goat Girl slowly, "I'll bet it
was something old and ugly to begin with. Didn't Nifflepok mention
something about a jug that was a rug? Maybe it's a rug, though more
likely a rogue. Say, I wonder if I broke the jug whether that would not
break the enchantment?"
"Oh, no, no, no! Don't do that!" begged Nox, rolling his eyes in
terror. "If you break the jug, the wizard will be furious, and how do
you know what will break the spell? Here, let me look at it." Passing
the jug rapidly from one hand to another, Handy started to place it
on the floor under Nox's nose with her seventh and last hand, when a
sudden and unexpected scream from the interior, made her drop it with a
loud crash to the silver stones.
"Ouch! Oh, stop! How dare you bang me around in this hateful manner?"
Up from the flying fragments of earthenware at Handy's feet sprang a
fierce little gnome with a long ragged beard, shaking his fists and
howling like a child.
"Oh, my--y! I've actually done it!" quavered the Goat Girl, falling
over against Nox. "Look! Look! Didn't I tell you it would be old and
ugly?" The gnome, at Handy's words suddenly stopped howling.
"Where am I? Where am I? WHO am I?" he mumbled in a frightened voice.
"Well, I don't know who you are, but I'm afraid you're in a pretty
bad place," said Handy, straightening up to have a better look at her
handiwork. "You're in the underground caverns of the King of the Silver
Mountain, if you must know."
"Caverns!" beamed the gnome, his face breaking into a wide smile.
"What's the matter with caverns? I LOVE caverns, why I used to live in
one myself. And who did you say I was?"
"We don't know who you are," explained Nox, in a cautious voice. "A
moment ago and before Handy took you in hand, you were nothing but a
jug."
"A jug?" pondered the gnome pulling his beard thoughtfully. "You mean
to say I was a JUG?"
"Maybe 'Was-a-jug's' your name," volunteered the Goat Girl, now quite
interested in her transformation.
"No, not 'Was-a-jug' but something like a jug. Let me think--Bug,
hug, chug, mug, pug, rug-RUG? That's it, THAT'S my name, _Ruggedo_!"
shrieked the little gnome joyfully, "and now I know who I am!"
"Well, who are you?" inquired the Ox, stretching his royal nose down
toward the whirling gnome.
"I, why, _I_ am the most important King on the other side of the
desert!" shouted Ruggedo exultantly. "I am the one and only Metal
Monarch and Ruler of all the Gnomes! My caves and caverns under the
mountains of Ev sparkle with jewels and precious stones, mined by my
faithful workers, and my grand army of gnomes outnumbers any army in
OZ." Proudly the ragged little King thumped himself upon the chest.
"Oh, my! Oh, me! Oh, mercy--ercy! If you're as powerful as all that,
maybe you'll help us!" cried the Goat Girl, clasping her hands eagerly.
"Help you? Why should I help you?" The little Gnome stared scornfully
at the two occupants of the cave.
"Because she broke your jug and enchantment, you ungrateful little
wretch!" snorted Nox, lowering his horns. "And you don't look like
a king to me, you just look like a plain ordinary wicked little
ragamuffin, a RUGAMUFFIN!" he bellowed angrily.