Wutz and the Gnome King Leave for the Capital!
Meanwhile, Wutz and Ruggedo had shot up in the wizard's silver car and
were now in earnest conversation together.
"How in suds did that girl break your enchantment?" asked Wutz,
dropping irritably to his silver workbench. "I was watching her every
minute through an invisible window and I didn't see her do a thing but
break the jug. Now why couldn't I have thought of that?"
"Oh, what does it matter?" Ruggedo settled himself with a joyful little
wriggle beside the Silver Monarch. "What does it matter so long as I am
free and able to help you? So you really think you can make yourself
Ruler of Oz?" he went on, glancing enviously round the wizard's well
stocked den, with its tables full of magic apparatus and its shelves
and shelves of dusty volumes of wizard and witch works. Wutz had
confided his plans and intentions to Ruggedo on the ride up. "Say!"
exclaimed the Gnome King suddenly, "How did you get Glinda's record
book? That's the most important treasure in her castle!"
"Of course!" Lazily the wizard reached for his silver pipe. "Well, it's
a long story, Rug, but I don't mind telling you that I have agents
working in every Kingdom of the country. Seven, who was assigned to the
Quadling Country, brought in the record book, smallifying it in order
to steal and carry it here, and restoring it to proper size when it
arrived. Six and Eleven have brought me useful magic from the Winkies
and Gillikins, but Five managed to steal Ozma's own magic picture, and
ha ha! since he couldn't find the Gnome King's belt, he brought me the
Gnome King himself! Pretty clever of him to discover you were a jug,
eh?"
"Re-markable!" sighed Ruggedo, as Wutz paused to blow a silver bubble
which floated out of the work den, breaking somewhere outside with a
tinkling bell-like explosion.
"Two glasses of melted silver," snapped the wizard to a smart looking
bell boy who came in answer to this singular summons. "Now," continued
Wutz, looking at the Gnome King through half closed eyes, "before I
attempt to capture the Emerald City, I must have one of two things;
either the silver hammer belonging to a witch of the West or the magic
belt that once belonged to you. So far, none of my agents has been able
to find the witch, locate the hammer, or discover where Ozma now keeps
your magic belt. But you, its rightful owner, must know exactly where
it is hidden?"
Ruggedo, without saying anything, nodded briefly.
"Well then," said Wutz, "if you will help me steal the magic belt,
which I understand is the most potent and powerful magic in Ev or Oz, I
will kick Kaliko off your throne, restore your own Kingdom and give you
besides any one of the four Oz Kingdoms you may fancy."
"Oh, don't bother me with any of the Oz Kingdoms. I'm sick of the
place!" frowned the Gnome, wagging his beard vindictively. "All I
want is my own old Kingdom and my own magic belt! But I tell you what
I will do. I'll help you steal this belt, for I know exactly where it
is hidden, show you how it works so you can transform Ozma and all her
friends and counselors to rocks and rubble. BUT, when you are safely
established as supreme Wizard of Oz, you must return the belt to me."
"Oh, naturally!" promised the wizard, chuckling to himself as he
thought how quickly he would turn Ruggedo to a rock once he was wearing
the famous belt. Taking a glass of melted silver from the tray the boy
had just set down, Wutz lifted it to his lips, and Ruggedo, his eyes
glittering with all their old spitefulness, raised his own glass to
drink to the wicked bargain.
"Come," he sputtered, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. "When
do we start? What magic have you to carry us to the capital and open
the emerald safe where the magic belt and other important treasures
of Ozma are hidden? But wait, perhaps we had better look in the magic
picture and see where Ozma and the Wizard of Oz are now?"
"I am afraid we cannot do that," Wutz explained regretfully. "Seven
spoiled the canvas in some way when he reduced it to carry it here.
It doesn't show anything now and I've not had time to repair the
damage."
"Pshaw, that's too bad," said Ruggedo, going over to touch the picture,
now hanging on the wizard's wall. "But the record book's still working,
I suppose?"
"Oh, yes," said the wizard, stepping up to the marble table and
glancing down at the open page. "And listen to this. It says," roared
the Silver King, holding his sides and simply rocking with wicked
merriment, "it says: 'The two metal monarchs are plotting the downfall
of the present ruler of Oz.'"
"What else does it say?" inquired the Gnome King, who had had more
experience than his companion in dealing with the magicians of the
Emerald City.
"It says, 'Ozma and her counselors have gone to the castle of Glinda
the Good,'" Wutz told him complacently closing and padlocking the big
volume.
"Then we'd better start at once and before they return," declared
Ruggedo. "For as soon as we have my belt we can change them to rocks,
wherever they are. The most important thing is to get that belt before
they know we are after it. But how are we going to get to the Emerald
City and how're we going to open that safe?"
"My silver blowpipe will reduce the safe to a heap of ashes without
injuring the contents," answered the wizard, "and reaching the capital
will be the simplest part of all!"
Taking a silver tube from a high shelf, Wutz put it in his pocket and
reaching for his bubble pipe, he began to blow an enormous quicksilver
bubble round himself and the Gnome King. Slowly and with both Kings
inside, the bubble rose, passed in a silver mist out of the wizard's
den, up through the honeycomb of caves, caverns and grottos, on up--and
up, till it floated right out of the top of the Silver King's Mountain.