"Could you please show us the way out of your house?" asked Trot, bowing nervously.
"We're on an important mission," put in the Scarecrow, "and must reach the Emerald City tonight."
"Your mission from now on is to make me laugh," roared the ring leader, holding his head still with both hands so he could better observe the Scarecrow. "Ha, ha! You're enough to make a Kookaroo laugh."
"I don't care a cat's whisker for your opinion," exclaimed the Scarecrow indignantly, as all the other Round-abouties began to roar with their little round ruler.
"Shall I hit somebody?" asked Benny, stepping close to the round table and bringing his fist down with a thump that shook the house.
"Ring the bell! Ring the bell!" cried the Round-abouty next to the ring leader. "Keep 'em going 'round, that's the way to keep them 'round here." As the leader lifted his arm to ring the silver bell, Trot broke away and, being careful to run sideways, rushed toward the door in the round tower. Seizing the ring, she jerked it open and plunged up the spiral stairway curling aloft. Almost instantly there was a thump behind her, and turning about, she saw that Benny and the Scarecrow were right at her heels. 'Round and 'round, up and up, tore Trot, not daring to look back and growing more breathless at every step. She could hear the screams and shouts of the Round-abouties down below and the thud of their rubber soles on the stair. Frightened as she was and determined though she was to escape, at the one hundred and tenth step Trot's breath failed her. Sinking down, she covered her face with her hands and waited for the mischievous little men to seize her. Instead, two hard arms caught her up and Benny, who never grew tired nor lost his breath, pounded 'round and 'round, and up and up to the very top of the flight. Butting a trap door in the center of the tower open with his head, he ran up the last three steps of the spiral stairway, leaned down, dragged the Scarecrow through the opening, then slammed down the trap door and sat on it just as the first Round-abouty reached the top.
"That!" declared the Scarecrow solemnly, "was the funniest race I ever was in. And now that we're up here, how shall we get down?" The trap door was bumping up and down from the furious thumps of the Round-abouties and even Benny's great weight could not hold it down indefinitely.
"We'll have to slide to earth," muttered the Scarecrow, after an earnest glance all around. "Do you think you could stand sliding, my dear? I tell you!" as Trot looked uncertainly down the curving surface of the huge wooden roof. "Let me sit in Benny's lap and you, Trot, shall sit in mine, then altogether we'll slide. The splinters won't hurt Benny."
"Better hurry up," advised the stone man, blinking his round eyes furiously as the thumps on the trap door grew more and more determined. "Hurry up!"
"You mean hurry down, don't you?" smiled the Scarecrow, dropping into Benny's lap. Then Trot sat carefully on top, Benny clasped his arms around them both and shoved off. Next instant they were tobogganing down the round house roof, faster and faster and faster! When they reached the edge they had gained such speed and momentum that they shot over an entire forest before they came to a stop. Stunned by the terrific force of their landing, but thanks to the Scarecrow, quite unhurt, Trot sat up and looked inquiringly around.
"Well, we're still in the Munchkin Country," panted the little girl, pointing to a blue farm house not far away.
"And we certainly covered a lot of ground, I mean air," coughed the Scarecrow, making an unsuccessful effort to arise. "Shake me up Trot, I'm flat as a fritter. Are you all right, Benny, my boulder?"
"My coat tails are a bit chipped," answered the stone man calmly, "but that is a small price to pay for freedom. This is a curious country, my dear," he observed, turning to Trot. "Everyone wishes to make us into a being like himself."
"A fault you will find with people everywhere, even in your own world," puffed the Scarecrow, as Trot shook and pounded him into shape. "Everybody thinks his way is the right way.
"Let's take a straight road this time," interrupted Trot, who disliked long arguments and, giving the Scarecrow a final pat, pulled him expertly to his feet. "Have we lost our way, Scarecrow?" The straw man looked long and earnestly in every direction.
"There's a road," he called finally, waving toward the East, "and I'll wager it leads right to Jinjur's door."
"Come on then," rumbled Benny impatiently. "I should like to meet the girl who conquered a city."
CHAPTER 14
A Meeting of Celebrities
CONQUERING a city is not so much," observed the Scarecrow as they started across the blue field. "Trot conquered an island in the sky and has a whole book of history written about her adventures there."
"Did you really?" Staring down at the little girl with wonder and admiration, Benny begged her to tell the story. So, as they hurried on to the blue cottage, Trot told how she and Button Bright and Cap'n Bill had flown on a magic umbrella to Sky Island, conquered the Pinks and Blues, and how she had been crowned Queen of the island. She was trying to explain to Benny why she preferred being a little girl in the Emerald City to a Queen in the sky, when the Scarecrow gave a sharp cry of alarm and sprang back from the road.
Thunderous hoof beats came pounding along the highway, and as Trot and Benny jumped out of the way a most astonishing steed galloped pell mell by them. It carried two riders, but as they were seated on a level with the tree tops they were almost invisible. About all Trot and her companions could see were High Boy's legs. For, of course, it was High Boy, and never having seen a high horse in the whole course of their lives the three travelers pressed back against the low wall, at the side of the road.
"Hey!" yelled the Scarecrow, torn between fright and curiosity.
"Where?" whinnied the high horse, stopping short and coming down so suddenly that Phil and the Medicine Man were nearly jolted out of the saddle. "Did you say hay?" he repeated gently, his head now on a level with the Scarecrow. "Ah!" Leaning forward, he snatched several wisps out of the Scarecrow's shirt front and munched them up with great relish.
"Stop!" commanded Trot sharply, as the Scarecrow, clutching his shirt front together, began to climb over the wall. "You mustn't eat the Scarecrow; he's alive!"
"Oh, all right then!" sighed High Boy, looking curiously down at Trot, "but he started it, you know. I should never have lowered myself to speak to you at all if he had not hollered 'Hay!'
"What I really meant was 'How-!!" stuttered the Scarecrow, balancing himself on the top of the wall and ready to jump either way. "How do you do?" he finished, jerking off his hat nervously.
"As I'm told sometimes, and as I please, others," sniffed High Boy, switching his tail impatiently. "But if it's how and not hay, I might as well get up and go on again."
"No, wait," directed Philador, greatly interested in the appearance of the three travelers. The Scarecrow he had recognized at once from a picture he had seen in a history at home. "This gentleman lives in the Emerald City, High Boy, and perhaps he will show us the way to the capital." At the little Prince's words, the Scarecrow quickly jumped down off the wall.
"We are going to the Emerald City ourselves," he exclaimed in surprise. "It's in the opposite direction from the one you are taking."
"We're hunting a Queen," explained Benny, deciding it was about time he got into the conversation.
"Why, so are we!" cried the medicine man, leaning so far out to the side that his chest flew open and spilled half its contents in the road. Trot and the Scarecrow were extremely shocked at this unexpected happening, but immediately went to Herby's assistance and when the last pill box was in place, the medicine man slammed his chest and, with a wide wave of his arms, announced:
"This is Prince Philador of the Ozure Isles, on a quest to find his royal mother and save his father's Kingdom. I am a medicine man and-"
"I am a high horse!" neighed High Boy, pawing up the dust with his hoof and tossing back his mane. "The only high horse in Oz!"
All of these announcements, as you can well imagine, filled Trot and her companions with astonishment
.
"Why, we've just left the Ozure Isles," burst out Trot breathlessly. "A bird-man carried us to Quiberon's cave and-"
"Let's all sit down," beamed the Scarecrow, "and talk this over comfortably." Before Philador or Herby could dismount, High Boy dropped down upon his haunches and, putting one hoof behind his ear, begged the Scarecrow to proceed with the story.
"Why don't you tie yourself up?" he muttered impatiently to the medicine man, who in rolling off his back had again upset his medicine chest.
"I'll lend you my belt," volunteered Trot, as Phil, who had also fallen off High Boy, picked himself up and sat down beside the straw man.
"Now then!" exclaimed Trot, after she had again restored the contents of Herby's chest and fastened it securely with her belt, "tell us everything that has happened!"
"Ladies first," murmured High Boy, showing both rows of teeth. "You travel in strange company, my dear." His eyes rolled at Benny and came to rest so hungrily on the Scarecrow that that agitated gentleman began stuffing in his stray wisps of hay as fast as possible.
"Trot out your tale, little girl," invited High Boy, swallowing hard and removing his eyes from the Scarecrow with evident effort. Philador added his entreaties to High Boy's. Trot began at once to recount their amazing experiences in Quiberon's cave.
"Why, it all fits together!" exclaimed the little Prince, jumping up excitedly. "Quiberon demands a mortal maiden or threatens to destroy our Kingdom in three days. Somehow or other someone or other flew off to the Emerald City for you, though I cannot imagine my father allowing such a thing and there are no bird-men on the Ozure Isles."
"What is your name, child?" asked High Boy, waving his hoof reprovingly at Phil. "Let the young lady finish her story, Princeling." So Philador sat down, and Trot, after telling her name and explaining the strange coming to life of Benny, went on with their further adventures, their meeting with Orpah and their final escape by explosion to the mainland.
"Orpah told us all about Mombi's wickedness," finished Trot, in an anxious voice, "and we were on our way to the Emerald City to ask Ozma to help your father when we bumped into you.
"And I shall carry you there," promised High Boy with a little snort of pleasure. "A girl named Trot can ride me any day. A fine, horsey sounding name! Do you care for riding, my dear?" Trot nodded enthusiastically and smiled up at this most comical beast. Then Philador, stepping out into the center of the ring, told everything that had happened to him since the blue gull left him at the good witch's hut. Trot and the Scarecrow were both astonished and alarmed to learn of Tattypoo's disappearance, and as interested in the medicine man as Philador had been in Benny. Benny himself listened gravely to the whole recital and at the conclusion began rubbing his chin in deep perplexity.
"If Mombi stole Philador's mother when he was two years old," he muttered in a puzzled voice, "and Mombi has not been witch of the North for twenty years, how is it that Philador is not grown up?" They all laughed heartily at the stone man's question.
"Because we stay one age as long as we wish, in Oz," answered the little Prince gaily. "I like being ten, so I've been ten for ever so long."
"So have I," declared Trot. "Nobody grows up here unless they want to, Benny. Isn't that fine?"
"Fine, but funny," acknowledged the stone man, looking from one to the other.
"Everything in Oz is fine but funny," admitted the Scarecrow, turning an exuberant somersault. "look at High Boy and look at me!"
"You'd make a fine lunch," observed High Boy, lifting his nose hungrily.
"Don't you think we'd better start on?" Trot, as the Scarecrow, with an indignant glance at High Boy, sprang behind a tree "Even though Quiberon cannot get out destroy the Ozure Isles, Cheeriobed must be worried about Philador and Ozma ought to know about the good witch's disappearance right away.
"Right you are!" Pulling himself to his feet, High Boy capered and pranced, first stretching his telescope legs up till his body was out of sight and then decreasing their length till his stomach rested on the ground.
"Do you consider him safe?" whispered Benny, observing High Boy's antics with a worried frown. "Had we not better walk?"
"Far better," quavered the Scarecrow, from behind his tree.
"Oh come, get on!" coaxed High Boy. "I was only teasing. I wouldn't harm a hay of your head," he promised merrily. "So long as Trot likes you, I'll carry you anywhere."
"Better get on while he's down," advised the medicine man, making ready to mount.
"He's a very fast runner," added Philador, smiling at Trot.
"And will save you breath, steps and time," whinnied High Boy, shaking his mane impatiently. "Up with you my brave Kingdom savers!" Realizing that they would reach the Emerald City much faster on High Boy, Trot spoke a few words to the Scarecrow and after a little coaxing he consented to come, climbing up after all the others so he would be as far from High Boy's teeth as possible.
Fortunately the high horse's back was long so that there was plenty of room for them all. First came the little Prince of the Ozure Isles, then Herby, then Trot, then Benny, and last of all the Scarecrow.
"Now hold tight," warned High Boy, rolling his eyes back gleefully, "and all ready!" Slapping the reins on his neck, Philador ordered him to get up. Whirling 'round in the direction indicated by the Scarecrow, High Boy not only got up but shot up so high they could see over the tree tops, and ran so fast that they clung breathlessly together.
"How's that?" inquired the King's steed, looking proudly around at Trot.
"Fu-fine!" stuttered the little girl, "but couldn't you trot a little slower, High Boy?"
"I'll trot slower for Trot, Though I'd much rather not, I can pace, I can race And I canter, a lot!"
chortled High Boy, snapping up his umbrella tail as he gave a sample of each gait.
"He's awfully smart," confided Philador in a loud whisper. "And we ought to reach the Emerald City tonight at the very latest." Trot nodded enthusiastically and as she became more accustomed to the jerky gait of the high horse she found it strangely exhilarating.
Imagine being able to look over the tree tops as you gallop along the road! Every once in a while High Boy would drop down to a lower level so his riders could see whether anyone was passing. While he was jogging along about five feet from the ground, a farmer turned into the lane. He was driving a huge herd of cattle and called loudly for High Boy to get out of the way. Instead, High Boy merely turned sideways and shot upward, allowing the whole procession to pass under his body.
Leaning over, Trot and Philador saw the farmer sitting in the middle of the road mopping his forehead, and they laughingly agreed that traveling on High Boy was the most interesting experience they had yet had. The Scarecrow was still uneasy about his stuffing, but even he was enjoying the ride, pointing out all the sights to Benny and the medicine man, and explaining all the treats in store when they reached the Emerald City.
"I cannot imagine who carried you to the Ozure Isles. Are you sure it was not the blue gull?" questioned Philador, as High Boy jogged comfortably along the blue highway.
"No, it was a man with golden wings," insisted Trot positively, "and he must have been terribly strong to have carried Benny all that way.
As Philador still puzzled over the strange birdman, she called out suddenly: "Why, we must have gone right by Jinjur's house!"
"So we have!" muttered the Scarecrow, looking back regretfully. "She'd have given you some fine ginger-bread, too."
"Never mind," neighed High Boy. "We'll be in the Emerald City in time for tea and there's a village just ahead. Maybe they'll have some fresh cake or buns." Stretching up his long legs, High Boy looked over the walls of the little town at the next turn of the road. It seemed entirely deserted and all the houses had shuttered windows and tightly locked doors. Dropping down to regular horse size, High Boy trotted up to the wooden door in the wall and butted his head three times against the panels.
For a moment there was absolute silence, and t
hen a muffled voice called out crossly: "Can't you read?"
"It says 'Keep Out!' "whispered Trot, leaning over so she could read the sign nailed on the door.
"Can't you let us in?" bellowed High Boy, beginning to stamp with impatience at the delay. "We're in a hurry and have to go through this town. Let us in, do you hear?"
"I hear!" shouted the voice defiantly, "But I'll not let you in. I'm the Out Keeper."
The Giant Horse Of Oz Page 9
