No sooner were the Wizard of Oz and his followers well within the castle
entrance when the big gates swung to with a clang and heavy bars dropped
across them. They looked at one another uneasily, but no one cared to
speak of the incident. If they were indeed prisoners in the wicker
castle it was evident they must find a way to escape, but their first
duty was to attend to the errand on which they had come and seek the
Royal Ozma, whom they believed to be a prisoner of the magician, and
rescue her.
They found they had entered a square courtyard, from which an entrance
led into the main building of the castle. No person had appeared to
greet them, so far, although a gaudy peacock, perched upon the wall,
cackled with laughter and said in its sharp, shrill voice: "Poor fools!
Poor fools!"
"I hope the peacock is mistaken," remarked the Frogman, but no one else
paid any attention to the bird. They were a little awed by the stillness
and loneliness of the place.
As they entered the doors of the castle, which stood invitingly open,
these also closed behind them and huge bolts shot into place. The
animals had all accompanied the party into the castle, because they felt
it would be dangerous for them to separate. They were forced to follow a
zigzag passage, turning this way and that, until finally they entered a
great central hall, circular in form and with a high dome from which was
suspended an enormous chandelier.
The Wizard went first, and Dorothy, Betsy and Trot followed him, Toto
keeping at the heels of his little mistress. Then came the Lion, the
Woozy and the Sawhorse; then Cayke the Cookie Cook and Button-Bright;
then the Lavender Bear carrying the Pink Bear, and finally the Frogman
and the Patchwork Girl, with Hank the Mule tagging behind. So it was the
Wizard who caught the first glimpse of the big domed hall, but the
others quickly followed and gathered in a wondering group just within
the entrance.
Upon a raised platform at one side was a heavy table on which lay
Glinda's Great Book of Records; but the platform was firmly fastened to
the floor and the table was fastened to the platform and the Book was
chained fast to the table--just as it had been when it was kept in
Glinda's palace. On the wall over the table hung Ozma's Magic Picture.
On a row of shelves at the opposite side of the hall stood all the
chemicals and essences of magic and all the magical instruments that had
been stolen from Glinda and Ozma and the Wizard, with glass doors
covering the shelves so that no one could get at them.
And in a far corner sat Ugu the Shoemaker, his feet lazily extended, his
skinny hands clasped behind his head. He was leaning back at his ease
and calmly smoking a long pipe. Around the magician was a sort of cage,
seemingly made of golden bars set wide apart, and at his feet--also
within the cage--reposed the long-sought diamond-studded dishpan of
Cayke the Cookie Cook.
Princess Ozma of Oz was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, well," said Ugu, when the invaders had stood in silence for a
moment, staring about them, "this visit is an expected pleasure, I
assure you. I knew you were coming and I know why you are here. You are
not welcome, for I cannot use any of you to my advantage, but as you
have insisted on coming I hope you will make the afternoon call as brief
as possible. It won't take long to transact your business with me. You
will ask me for Ozma, and my reply will be that you may find her--if you
can."
"Sir," answered the Wizard, in a tone of rebuke, "you are a very wicked
and cruel person. I suppose you imagine, because you have stolen this
poor woman's dishpan and all the best magic in Oz, that you are more
powerful than we are and will be able to triumph over us."
"Yes," said Ugu the Shoemaker, slowly filling his pipe with fresh
tobacco from a silver bowl that stood beside him, "that is exactly what
I imagine. It will do you no good to demand from me the girl who was
formerly the Ruler of Oz, because I will not tell you where I have
hidden her--and you can't guess in a thousand years. Neither will I
restore to you any of the magic I have captured. I am not so foolish.
But bear this in mind: I mean to be the Ruler of Oz myself, hereafter,
so I advise you to be careful how you address your future Monarch."
"Ozma is still Ruler of Oz, wherever you may have hidden her," declared
the Wizard. "And bear this in mind, miserable Shoemaker: We intend to
find her and to rescue her, in time, but our first duty and pleasure
will be to conquer you and then punish you for your misdeeds."
"Very well; go ahead and conquer," said Ugu. "I'd really like to see how
you can do it."
Now, although the little Wizard had spoken so boldly, he had at the
moment no idea how they might conquer the magician. He had that morning
given the Frogman, at his request, a dose of zosozo from his bottle, and
the Frogman had promised to fight a good fight if it was necessary; but
the Wizard knew that strength alone could not avail against magical
arts. The toy Bear King seemed to have some pretty good magic, however,
and the Wizard depended to an extent on that. But something ought to be
done right away, and the Wizard didn't know what it was.
While he considered this perplexing question and the others stood
looking at him as their leader, a queer thing happened. The floor of the
great circular hall, on which they were standing, suddenly began to tip.
Instead of being flat and level it became a slant, and the slant grew
steeper and steeper until none of the party could manage to stand upon
it. Presently they all slid down to the wall, which was now under them,
and then it became evident that the whole vast room was slowly turning
upside down! Only Ugu the Shoemaker, kept in place by the bars of his
golden cage, remained in his former position, and the wicked magician
seemed to enjoy the surprise of his victims immensely.
First, they all slid down to the wall back of them, but as the room
continued to turn over they next slid down the wall and found themselves
at the bottom of the great dome, bumping against the big chandelier
which, like everything else, was now upside-down.
The turning movement now stopped and the room became stationary. Looking
far up, they saw Ugu suspended in his cage at the very top, which had
once been the floor.
"Ah," said he, grinning down at them, "the way to conquer is to act, and
he who acts promptly is sure to win. This makes a very good prison, from
which I am sure you cannot escape. Please amuse yourselves in any way
you like, but I must beg you to excuse me, as I have business in another
part of my castle."
[Illustration]
Saying this, he opened a trap door in the floor of his cage (which was
now over his head) and climbed through it and disappeared from their
view. The diamond dishpan still remained in the cage, but the bars kept
it from falling down on their heads.
"Well, I declare!" said the Patchwork Girl, seizing one of the bars of
the chandelier and swinging from it, "we must peg one for the Shoemaker,
for he has trapped us very cleverly."
"Get off my foot, please," said the Lion to the Sawhorse.
"And oblige me, Mr. Mule," remarked the Woozy, "by taking your tail out
of my left eye."
"It's rather crowded down here," explained Dorothy, "because the dome is
rounding and we have all slid into the middle of it. But let us keep as
quiet as possible until we can think what's best to be done."
"Dear, dear!" wailed Cayke; "I wish I had my darling dishpan," and she
held her arms longingly toward it.
"I wish I had the magic on those shelves up there," sighed the Wizard.
"Don't you s'pose we could get to it?" asked Trot anxiously.
"We'd have to fly," laughed the Patchwork Girl.
But the Wizard took the suggestion seriously, and so did the Frogman.
They talked it over and soon planned an attempt to reach the shelves
where the magical instruments were. First the Frogman lay against the
rounding dome and braced his foot on the stem of the chandelier; then
the Wizard climbed over him and lay on the dome with his feet on the
Frogman's shoulders; the Cookie Cook came next; then Button-Bright
climbed to the woman's shoulders; then Dorothy climbed up, and Betsy and
Trot, and finally the Patchwork Girl, and all their lengths made a long
line that reached far up the dome but not far enough for Scraps to touch
the shelves.
"Wait a minute; perhaps I can reach the magic," called the Bear King,
and began scrambling up the bodies of the others. But when he came to
the Cookie Cook his soft paws tickled her side so that she squirmed and
upset the whole line. Down they came, tumbling in a heap against the
animals, and although no one was much hurt it was a bad mix-up and the
Frogman, who was at the bottom, almost lost his temper before he could
get on his feet again.
Cayke positively refused to try what she called "the pyramid act" again,
and as the Wizard was now convinced they could not reach the magic tools
in that manner the attempt was abandoned.
"But _something_ must be done," said the Wizard, and then he turned to
the Lavender Bear and asked: "Cannot Your Majesty's magic help us to
escape from here?"
"My magic powers are limited," was the reply. "When I was stuffed, the
fairies stood by and slyly dropped some magic into my stuffing.
Therefore I can do any of the magic that's inside me, but nothing else.
You, however, are a wizard, and a wizard should be able to do anything."
"Your Majesty forgets that my tools of magic have been stolen," said the
Wizard sadly, "and a wizard without tools is as helpless as a carpenter
without a hammer or saw."
"Don't give up," pleaded Button-Bright, "'cause if we can't get out of
this queer prison we'll all starve to death."
"Not I!" laughed the Patchwork Girl, now standing on top the chandelier,
at the place that was meant to be the bottom of it.
"Don't talk of such dreadful things," said Trot, shuddering. "We came
here to capture the Shoemaker, didn't we?"
[Illustration]
"And here we are, captured ourselves, and my darling dishpan up there in
plain sight!" wailed the Cookie Cook, wiping her eyes on the tail of the
Frogman's coat.
"Hush!" called the Lion, with a low, deep growl. "Give the Wizard time
to think."
"He has plenty of time," said Scraps. "What he needs is the Scarecrow's
brains."
After all, it was little Dorothy who came to their rescue, and her
ability to save them was almost as much a surprise to the girl as it was
to her friends. Dorothy had been secretly testing the powers of her
Magic Belt, which she had once captured from the Nome King, and
experimenting with it in various ways, ever since she had started on
this eventful journey. At different times she had stolen away from the
others of her party and in solitude had tried to find out what the Magic
Belt could do and what it could not do. There were a lot of things it
could not do, she discovered, but she learned some things about the Belt
which even her girl friends did not suspect she knew.
[Illustration]
For one thing, she had remembered that when the Nome King owned it the
Magic Belt used to perform transformations, and by thinking hard she had
finally recalled the way in which such transformations had been
accomplished. Better than this, however, was the discovery that the
Magic Belt would grant its wearer one wish a day. All she need do was
close her right eye and wiggle her left toe and then draw a long breath
and make her wish. Yesterday she had wished in secret for a box of
caramels, and instantly found the box beside her. To-day she had saved
her daily wish, in case she might need it in an emergency, and the time
had now come when she must use the wish to enable her to escape with her
friends from the prison in which Ugu had caught them.
So, without telling anyone what she intended to do--for she had only
used the wish once and could not be certain how powerful the Magic Belt
might be--Dorothy closed her right eye and wiggled her left big toe and
drew a long breath and wished with all her might. The next moment the
room began to revolve again, as slowly as before, and by degrees they
all slid to the side wall and down the wall to the floor--all but
Scraps, who was so astonished that she still clung to the chandelier.
When the big hall was in its proper position again and the others stood
firmly upon the floor of it, they looked far up to the dome and saw the
Patchwork Girl swinging from the chandelier.
"Good gracious!" cried Dorothy. "How ever will you get down?"
"Won't the room keep turning?" asked Scraps.
"I hope not. I believe it has stopped for good," said Princess Dorothy.
"Then stand from under, so you won't get hurt!" shouted the Patchwork
Girl, and as soon as they had obeyed this request she let go the
chandelier and came tumbling down heels over head and twisting and
turning in a very exciting manner. Plump! she fell on the tiled floor
and they ran to her and rolled her and patted her into shape again.
[Illustration]
The Defiance of Ugu the Shoemaker
[Illustration]