L. Frank Baum - Oz 40

by Merry Go Round In Oz

  “And his Steed, and his Royal Emblem,” the Prince added

  austerely.

  “And his page, Fess of Troth,” shouted Fess, as impressive as he could.

  “And his protector, the Fierce Lion of Oz,” growled the

  Cowardly Lion, who had decided he might be more impressive incognito.

  “And me, Dorothy,” Dorothy said firmly.

  “And me, and me, and me!” the Flittermouse shrieked in tremendous excitement.

  “In the name of my father, King Herald the 64th,” cried the Prince, “I demand the instant return of the Third Golden Circlet of Halidom!”

  Robin swallowed convulsively. “The wh-whatlet of wh-whatidom?” he faltered.

  “Do not feign ignorance!” the Prince thundered, half-drawing his sword. “You hold in unlawful possession a Treasure of my kingdom, and I command you to hand it over! If you do not instantly obey-”

  “Oh, wait a minute,” begged Dorothy, who had been looking more closely at Robin, and with astonishment, at Merry, who was peeking wide-eyed from behind the throne. “I don’t think he even knows what you’re talking about! Besides, you mustn’t bully him, he’s not as big as you are!”

  “He is just a little lad, isn’t he?” said the Prince, reverting with relief to his usual mild tones, and studying Robin with interest. “And what an extraordinary Steed he has! See here,” he said to Robin, letting his sword slip back into his sheath. “Are you really king of this funny place?”

  “Not really,” Robin said. He drew a long, wavering breath

  and began to relax a little, though he kept a vigilant eye on the Fierce Lion of Oz. “I’m just sort of-of temporary. I’d better call Roundelay. He-”

  At that moment one of the small doors opened, and Polkadots reappeared, followed by Roundelay himself. The Seer had hurried halfway to the throne when he caught sight of the Prince. He stopped dead, then tried hastily to sneak back out. But the Prince had seen him, and was staring in astonishment.

  “Why, it’s the peddler!” he cried.

  Chapter 16

  THE PRINCE’S exclamation caused Roundelay to stop in his tracks, while the rest of the party gazed surprise first at this newcomer, then at Prince Gules.

  “Do you kno’w this-this-whoever it is?” Dorothy asked

  bewilderment.

  “It’s Roundelay,” said Robin.

  “Roundelay, Sphere-Seer of Roundabout, at your service, my dear young lady,” said that personage, smiling ingratiatingly, bowing, and rubbing his hands.

  “Don’t believe the rogue,” Prince Gules retorted, watching this performance with distaste. “Naturally, he is no acquaintance of mine-but I’ve seen him, time and again, in Pax-on-Argent. Why, I saw him not a week ago, coming out of Sir Greve’s house. I kno’w he’s the peddler.”

  “You highness is right, quite right,” Roundelay said. “Until recently, all Roundheads were peddlers-even I. But that is changed now. No more must our homeloving people tramp the highways and byways of Munchkinland. No more must we shoulder our heavy packs, bow our weary backs, and trudge-”

  “Get on with it!” growled the Cowardly Lion, who did not care for oratory.

  “-on our rounds,” the Seer said quickly. “We may now remain at home in our beloved and beautiful sphere and be ladies and gentlemen, for now we have a king! And a Royal Symbol! We have become-”

  “And a National Magic Possession, too!” Polkadots put in eagerly. “Don’t forget the Shining Circle!”

  “Be quiet!” Roundelay snarled. “You may leave! Get out!”

  Polkadots hurried to obey, but the damage was done. Fess and Dorothy chorused, “What Shining Circle?” and the Prince cried, “Circlet Three! I knew it!”

  “You mean the Shining Circle is your Circlet?” Robin exclaimed.

  “I’m positive of it!” the Prince declared. “And I must have it back at once! It-”

  “Quick - somebody catch that seer” Fess snapped.

  Without even interrupting a yawn, the Cowardly Lion, happened to be nearest, shot out his right front foot and hooked a claw into Roundelay’s tunic, bringing to an abrupt halt the

  Seer’s second attempt to sneak away.

  “It is of supreme importance that I restore the Circlet to my father,” the Prince was saying to Robin. “Tell me, who is the king here, if you are not?”

  “Well, I’m not! But I don’t know-”

  “You are! He is!” Roundelay broke in.’ “He and no other! He is Round Robin the First, Ruler of Roundabout and Sov-”

  “Hush,” said the Cowardly Lion, squashing the Seer’s peaked cap over his face.

  “I’m not anything of the sort!” Robin said indignantly. “I’m plain Robin Brown from Cherryburg, Oregon, and I’m a prisoner here, and

  “A prisoner!” Fess exclaimed.

  Simultaneously, Dorothy cried, “Did you say Oregon? Why I’m from Kansas!”

  “Kansas! Are you that Dorothy?” Robin gasped.

  At that point everybody began asking so many questions everybody else that it became quite impossible for a few minutes to sort out what anybody was saying. Seizing the chance to ask a burning question of her own, Merry emerged from behind the throne and hurried over to where Fred and the Unicorn were standing.

  “Is that your pole?” Merry whispered shyly, fixing wide, excited eyes on the Unicorn’s horn. “Did you used to be a merry-go-round horse like me, before the Wizard transformed you?” Fred could not restrain a snort of laughter, and for a dumb-Page 197

  founded moment the Unicorn’s golden eyes opened as wide as Merry’s. But then all three began to explain-Fred, kindly, that he wasn’t really laughing at Merry, and Merry, humbly, that she didn’t really mean to be rude, but she’d never seen a Unicorn before, and the Unicorn, gently (because this was a fellow female) that Merry’s ignorance was quite understandable, because there weren’t any other Unicorns to see. Meanwhile, Dorothy, Robin, Fess and the Prince were untangling their various stories and meeting each other properly, and Robin was being formally introduced to Flitter and the Cowardly Lion, while the Lion himself sat thumping his tail, absentmindedly squashing the struggling Seer, and watching the whole scene with benign interest.

  Presently things were sufficiently straightened out for them all to turn their attention back to the matter of the Shining Circle.

  “Maybe it is your Circlet,” Robin told the Prince. “I’d tell you in a minute if I knew, but I’ve never seen either one of them. Why don’t you ask Roundelay? I’ll bet he knows all about it, the old villain!”

  “Villain?” gulped Flitter, bouncing into the air and skittering around Fess’s head. “Is that the Villain, Fess dear? I’m willin’ to fight the Villain-bite the Villain-”

  “No, no-better not bite him, Flitter,” Fess said quickly. “Your part’s in a different verse, remember? The one about Circlet Two. This is about Circlet Three, and the future king, and roundabout way and all that.”

  “Oh, yes,” Flitter said, settling down again with relief. “Well, I’ll fight him, if necessary, or even bite him!” Prince Gules said as he strode over to the Seer. “Let him up, please, Sir

  Lion.”

  As the Cowardly Lion obligingly removed his paw, Roundelay struggled to his feet and backed dizzily away, jerking at his hat. After numerous furious attempts he succeeded in yanking it off his eyes, and glared, red-faced and defiant, at the Prince.

  “He does know all about it, I can tell by looking at him!” Gules exclaimed. “You insolent, bald old Jackanapes, where is my father’s Golden Circlet?”

  “It isn’t your father’s Golden Circlet! Not any more it isn’t!” shouted the infuriated Seer. “It’s Roundabout’s Shining Circle. What’s more, we Roundheads have a perfect right to it, because it’s round!”

  “You have no right to it whatsoever! Where is it?” the Prince demanded.

  “It’s in the Round Tower,” Robin muttered.

  “Yes, in the Round Tower!” Roundelay’s scowl
changed to a spiteful grin as he began to back away. “And perfectly safe, as His Majesty Round Robin will be glad to tell you. Just try and get it!”

  “I intend to try, and I intend to succeed!” the Prince informed him. “I’d give a sack of gold pieces to know how you got it, in the first place!”

  “Oh, would you?” Roundelay hugged himself with both skinny arms and burst into mocking laughter. “Then ask Sir

  Greves!”

  “Sir Greves?” repeated the Prince, momentarily too taken aback to do more than stare.

  “Yes, Sir Greves! Go home and ask him! Leave now, why

  don’t you?”

  “I’ll never leave without that Circlet!”

  “Then you’ll never leave,” Roundelay retorted. With another burst of laughter, he leaped nimbly through the round doorway and slammed the great glass portal after him.

  “Oh, dear, he’s locking it!” Dorothy cried.

  “Let him,” the Prince said scornfully. “Once I have that Circlet on my thumb, my hands will be skillful enough to pick the lock! Where’s the door to this Tower, Robin? We’ll break it down!.”

  “It isn’t locked,” Robin sighed, pointing toward a small door set in an alcove. “There’s no need to lock it.. Roundelay’s right, I’m afraid. You’ll never get the Shining Circle unless he says so.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’s guarded. By the Machine. I’ll show you.”

  Robin led the way across the room to the alcove and flung open the small door. The others crowded through after him and found that they had walked directly into the Round Tower. It was a very curious room they stood in; Fess decided it was like being in the bottom of a well. The floor was bare and circular, and the shining dark walls rose sheer and straight on every side. There was nothing

  whatever in the place except a thin spiral staircase, which wound up the center through empty space to a platform high at the top of the Tower.

  “Is the Circlet up there?” Dorothy asked Robin as they stared upward.

  “That’s what Roundelay said when he showed me this place,” Robin told her. “Of course, he called it the Shining Circle. But whatever it is, it’s up there on that platform.”

  “Then why can’t we just climb up the stairs and get it?” Prince Gules demanded. As he spoke, he strode toward the stairs, and before Robin could stop him, placed one foot on the bottom step.

  Instantly a tremendous clamor of alarm bells broke out from what seemed every direction at once. As the noise shrilled and screamed and banged and clanged, the cringing travelers saw the Machine appear like an awakened watchdog on the edge of the high platform.

  The Machine, which was made of shining steel, was a large, complicated affair, indeterminate in shape but intimidating in appearance, and absolutely crammed with pulleys and cogs and wheels. In fact, it seemed mainly composed of wheels within wheels, and Fess thought it had a decidedly malevolent sneer. It lost no time proving it could do more than sneer. Before the Prince -or anyone else-could possibly have reached the top of the long spiral of stairs, it had shot out a steel arm holding six interlocking and furiously spinning wheels and placed them across the platform like a shield, separating platform and stairs as effectively as a squad

  of armed soldiers could have done it.

  Shivering, Dorothy pulled the Prince back. The instant his foot was off the bottom step, the din of bells died away, the arm with its spinning wheels drew back, and the Machine disappeared from view, leaving only the sound of Roundelay’s jeering laughter coming from somewhere outside the Tower.

  “That’s why,” Robin said simply.

  “And a very good reason, too’, said the Cowardly Lion with a shudder. Every hair on his mane was standing on end, and he shook it angrily as he padded to the dark glass wall and flattened his nose against it in an attempt to see where the laughter was coming from “I wish I’d squashed that beetly little Seer when I had my paws on him!” he growled.

  “But then we’d never get the Circlet!” Fess pointed out.

  “We’re never going to get it anyway, far as I can see,” Dorothy sighed. “Unless…” She looked nervously at the stair. “I weigh the least of anybody, I s’pect. Maybe if 1 tried it-on my very tippy toes.

  “Nonsense! I won’t hear of it!” roared the Cowardly Lion, his mane bushing up uncontrollably again.

  “It wouldn’t work, anyhow,” Robin told her. “The alarm’s too sensitive. Why, an ordinary blue-bottle fly lighted on that bottom step this morning, and set off the whole alarm.”

  “How about the second step? Or the third or fourth?” the Prince demanded. He was still glaring up at the platform as if it had

  insulted him personally.

  “They’re all the same. The least vibration on the stairs, and the Machine comes out to see what’s going on.”

  “What if I climbed up the banister?” Fess suggested.

  Robin shook his head, but shrugged and said, “Try it if you

  like.”

  “Oh, no, don’t!” Dorothy begged. “I couldn’t stand that racket again! Come on, let’s get out of this awful place, and try to think of some way to make Roundelay get the Circlet for us.”

  Merry and the Unicorn had bolted into the Round Room at the first sound of the alarms, and were uneasily waiting there when the others returned. Fred had bolted with them, to his subsequent intense shame, and was now pretending stern and single-minded interest in the large door-the thick round glass one.

  “Don’t worry about being locked in, Your Highness,” he told the Prince in his most responsible voice “One good kick, and there’ll be nothing of this thing left to lock.”

  “You think you can bring yourself to kick this time?” rumbled the Cowardly Lion, who had not forgotten the Nursery.

  “Don’t worry about that either,” Fred muttered. “That was in my stupid days, you know. I realize now that sometimes the best thing to do with manners and training is to forget them.”

  “Well, I’ve been trained to eat, and I’m having a little trouble forgetting that at the moment,” the Lion confessed. “In fact, I’m about to forget my manners, too, and ask our little King Robin here if he happens to be ruler of any cooks.”

  “You bet I am!” Robin told him. “Merry, just go down to the kitchen and tell them to send up a banquet, will you? With plenty of barley for Fred, and-excuse me, but what does the Unicorn like to eat?”

  “I don’t suppose you’d have any quatrefoils, would you?” said that creature wistfully. “Or even a few plain fleur-de-lys?”

  “Not unless they’re circular,” Robin sighed. “Merry. just say ‘flowers’ and we’ll see what they bring. And tell them to turn on that moon-it’s almost dark.”

  Without their noticing, afternoon had, indeed, slipped into dusk, and the light was fading fast. Very shortly, however, a large moon-like lamp began to glow from the glass dome above their heads, and was soon filling the room with its soft radiance.

  “Is everything round here.-” Dorothy inquired, blinking curiously at this odd but attractive lighting system.

  “Absolutely everything,” Robin said. “Food, houses, furniture! And the people sing rounds and talk in circles-and write round-robin letters with ball-point pens! I’ve only been here a day, and already I’d give most anything just for the sight of a straight line or a square!”

  “It’s a pretty place, though,” Fess remarked from the window, through which he was admiring the view of the shining glass city, and the moon-lamps blinking on in dome after dome.

  “I know it,” Robin admitted. “And the Roundheads are nice friendly people, too-all except Roundelay. But I’m not a Roundhead, and I don’t know how to be a king, and all I want is to get away!”

  “Of course you do,” Dorothy agreed. “That old Roundelay had no business keeping you here in the first place. You and Merry just stick with us, and when we escape, you can come too!”

  “The question is,” Fess said, “Can any of us escape.?”r />
  Chapter 17

  IT was quite a question Fess had asked. Trying to answer it kept the travelers busy all the time they were eating the excellent banquet Robin had provided (the Unicorn got tuberoses and bachelor buttons, which she found delicious) and long after the dishes had been cleared away. Fred had relieved their minds about the locked glass door; but what about the bridge? The Roundheads had drawn it in as soon as the travelers had crossed over it that afternoon, and it hadn’t been extended since. Robin considered this, then said,

  “I don’t think that’ll be a problem. It all depends on our timing.” He explained that in their peddling days the Roundheads had kept the bridge stretched out across the whirling road most of the time, because they were constantly going and coming on their rounds. But from now on they planned to extend it for just one hour in the early morning, between six and seven o’clock-barely long enough for the people to go out to the hills and gather enough prickly pears for their daily ration of Pi. “You remember Pi-that

  dessert we had for dinner,” Robin added.

  Fess, who had had three pieces, remembered it very well, and quickly said so. “Do they have it every day:” he asked enviously.

  ”Yes-it’s their national dish. Well, I thought we might get up before six o’clock, and get all ready, and then the minute they push the bridge Out, Fred can kick down the door and we’ll all run like sixty, and storm the gates, and be the very first ones on the bridge. I’ll bet we could bet across before anybody could stop us!