The Glass Cat was a good guide and led Trot and Cap'n Bill by straight
and easy paths through all the settled part of the Munchkin Country,
and then into the north section where there were few houses, and
finally through a wild country where there were no houses or paths at
all. But the walking was not difficult and at last they came to the
edge of a forest and stopped there to make camp and sleep until morning.
From branches of trees Cap'n Bill made a tiny house that was just big
enough for the little girl to crawl into and lie down. But first they
ate some of the food Trot had carried in the basket.
"Don't you want some, too?" she asked the Glass Cat.
"No," answered the creature.
"I suppose you'll hunt around an' catch a mouse," remarked Cap'n Bill.
"Me? Catch a mouse! Why should I do that?" inquired the Glass Cat.
"Why, then you could eat it," said the sailor-man.
"I beg to inform you," returned the crystal tabby, "that I do not eat
mice. Being transparent, so anyone can see through me, I'd look nice,
wouldn't I, with a common mouse inside me? But the fact is that I
haven't any stomach or other machinery that would permit me to eat
things. The careless magician who made me didn't think I'd need to
eat, I suppose."
"Don't you ever get hungry or thirsty?" asked Trot.
"Never. I don't complain, you know, at the way I'm made, for I've
never yet seen any living thing as beautiful as I am. I have the
handsomest brains in the world. They're pink, and you can see 'em
work."
"I wonder," said Trot thoughtfully, as she ate her bread and jam, "if
MY brains whirl around in the same way yours do."
"No; not the same way, surely," returned the Glass Cat; "for, in that
case, they'd be as good as MY brains, except that they're hidden under
a thick, boney skull."
"Brains," remarked Cap'n Bill, "is of all kinds and work different
ways. But I've noticed that them as thinks that their brains is best
is often mistook."
Trot was a little disturbed by sounds from the forest, that night, for
many beasts seemed prowling among the trees, but she was confident
Cap'n Bill would protect her from harm. And in fact, no beast ventured
from the forest to attack them.
At daybreak they were up again, and after a simple breakfast Cap'n Bill
said to the Glass Cat:
"Up anchor, Mate, and let's forge ahead. I don't suppose we're far
from that Magic Flower, are we?"
"Not far," answered the transparent one, as it led the way into the
forest, "but it may take you some time to get to it."
Before long they reached the bank of a river. It was not very wide, at
this place, but as they followed the banks in a northerly direction it
gradually broadened.
Suddenly the blue-green leaves of the trees changed to a purple hue,
and Trot noticed this and said:
"I wonder what made the colors change like that?"
"It's because we have left the Munchkin Country and entered the
Gillikin Country," explained the Glass Cat. "Also it's a sign our
journey is nearly ended."
The river made a sudden turn, and after the travelers had passed around
the bend, they saw that the stream had now become as broad as a small
lake, and in the center of the Lake they beheld a little island, not
more than fifty feet in extent, either way. Something glittered in the
middle of this tiny island, and the Glass Cat paused on the bank and
said:
"There is the gold flower-pot containing the Magic Flower, which is
very curious and beautiful. If you can get to the island, your task is
ended--except to carry the thing home with you."
Cap'n Bill looked at the broad expanse of water and began to whistle a
low, quavering tune. Trot knew that the whistle meant that Cap'n Bill
was thinking, and the old sailor didn't look at the island as much as
he looked at the trees upon the bank where they stood. Presently he
took from the big pocket of his coat an axe-blade, wound in an old
cloth to keep the sharp edge from cutting his clothing. Then, with a
large pocket knife, he cut a small limb from a tree and whittled it
into a handle for his axe.
"Sit down, Trot," he advised the girl, as he worked. "I've got quite a
job ahead of me now, for I've got to build us a raft."
"What do we need a raft for, Cap'n?"
"Why, to take us to the island. We can't walk under water, in the
river bed, as the Glass Cat did, so we must float atop the water."
"Can you make a raft, Cap'n Bill?"
"O' course, Trot, if you give me time."
The little girl sat down on a log and gazed at the Island of the Magic
Flower. Nothing else seemed to grow on the tiny isle. There was no
tree, no shrub, no grass, even, as far as she could make out from that
distance. But the gold pot glittered in the rays of the sun, and Trot
could catch glimpses of glowing colors above it, as the Magic Flower
changed from one sort to another.
"When I was here before," remarked the Glass Cat, lazily reclining at
the girl's feet, "I saw two Kalidahs on this very bank, where they had
come to drink."
"What are Kalidahs?" asked the girl.
"The most powerful and ferocious beasts in all Oz. This forest is
their especial home, and so there are few other beasts to be found
except monkeys. The monkeys are spry enough to keep out of the way of
the fierce Kalidahs, which attack all other animals and often fight
among themselves."
"Did they try to fight you when you saw 'em?" asked Trot, getting very
much excited.
"Yes. They sprang upon me in an instant; but I lay flat on the ground,
so I wouldn't get my legs broken by the great weight of the beasts, and
when they tried to bite me I laughed at them and jeered them until they
were frantic with rage, for they nearly broke their teeth on my hard
glass. So, after a time, they discovered they could not hurt me, and
went away. It was great fun."
"I hope they don't come here again to drink,--not while we're here,
anyhow," returned the girl, "for I'm not made of glass, nor is Cap'n
Bill, and if those bad beasts bit us, we'd get hurt."
Cap'n Bill was cutting from the trees some long stakes, making them
sharp at one end and leaving a crotch at the other end. These were to
bind the logs of his raft together. He had fashioned several and was
just finishing another when the Glass Cat cried: "Look out! There's a
Kalidah coming toward us."
Trot jumped up, greatly frightened, and looked at the terrible animal
as if fascinated by its fierce eyes, for the Kalidah was looking at
her, too, and its look wasn't at all friendly. But Cap'n Bill called
to her: "Wade into the river, Trot, up to your knees--an' stay there!"
and she obeyed him at once. The sailor-man hobbled forward, the stake
in one hand and his axe in the other, and got between the girl and the
beast, which sprang upon him with a growl of defiance.
Cap'n Bill moved pretty slowly, sometimes, but now he was quick as
could be. As the Kalidah sprang toward him he stuck out his wooden leg
and the point of it struck the beast between the eyes and sent it
rolling upon the ground. Before it could get upon its feet again the
sailor pushed the sharp stake right through its body and then with the
flat side of the axe he hammered the stake as far into the ground as it
would go. By this means he captured the great beast and made it
harmless, for try as it would, it could not get away from the stake
that held it.
Cap'n Bill knew he could not kill the Kalidah, for no living thing in
Oz can be killed, so he stood back and watched the beast wriggle and
growl and paw the earth with its sharp claws, and then, satisfied it
could not escape, he told Trot to come out of the water again and dry
her wet shoes and stockings in the sun.
"Are you sure he can't get away?" she asked.
"I'd bet a cookie on it," said Cap'n Bill, so Trot came ashore and took
off her shoes and stockings and laid them on the log to dry, while the
sailor-man resumed his work on the raft.
The Kalidah, realizing after many struggles that it could not escape,
now became quiet, but it said in a harsh, snarling voice:
"I suppose you think you're clever, to pin me to the ground in this
manner. But when my friends, the other Kalidahs, come here, they'll
tear you to pieces for treating me this way."
"P'raps," remarked Cap'n Bill, coolly, as he chopped at the logs, "an'
p'raps not. When are your folks comin' here?"
"I don't know," admitted the Kalidah. "But when they DO come, you
can't escape them."
"If they hold off long enough, I'll have my raft ready," said Cap'n
Bill.
"What are you going to do with a raft?" inquired the beast.
"We're goin' over to that island, to get the Magic Flower."
The huge beast looked at him in surprise a moment, and then it began to
laugh. The laugh was a good deal like a roar, and it had a cruel and
derisive sound, but it was a laugh nevertheless.
"Good!" said the Kalidah. "Good! Very good! I'm glad you're going to
get the Magic Flower. But what will you do with it?"
"We're going to take it to Ozma, as a present on her birthday."
The Kalidah laughed again; then it became sober. "If you get to the
land on your raft before my people can catch you," it said, "you will
be safe from us. We can swim like ducks, so the girl couldn't have
escaped me by getting into the water; but Kalidahs don't go to that
island over there."
"Why not?" asked Trot.
The beast was silent.
"Tell us the reason," urged Cap'n Bill.
"Well, it's the Isle of the Magic Flower," answered the Kalidah, "and
we don't care much for magic. If you hadn't had a magic leg, instead
of a meat one, you couldn't have knocked me over so easily and stuck
this wooden pin through me."
"I've been to the Magic Isle," said the Glass Cat, "and I've watched
the Magic Flower bloom, and I'm sure it's too pretty to be left in that
lonely place where only beasts prowl around it and no else sees it. So
we're going to take it away to the Emerald City."
"I don't care," the beast replied in a surly tone. "We Kalidahs would
be just as contented if there wasn't a flower in our forest. What good
are the things anyhow?"
"Don't you like pretty things?" asked Trot.
"No."
"You ought to admire my pink brains, anyhow," declared the Glass Cat.
"They're beautiful and you can see 'em work."
The beast only growled in reply, and Cap'n Bill, having now cut all his
logs to a proper size, began to roll them to the water's edge and
fasten them together.