7. Into the Black Pit and Out Again
When they came to the mountain it proved to be a rugged, towering chunkof deep green glass, and looked dismal and forbidding in the extreme.Half way up the steep was a yawning cave, black as night beyond thepoint where the rainbow rays of the colored suns reached into it.
The Mangaboos drove the horse and the kitten and the piglets into thisdark hole and then, having pushed the buggy in after them--for itseemed some of them had dragged it all the way from the domedhall--they began to pile big glass rocks within the entrance, so thatthe prisoners could not get out again.
"This is dreadful!" groaned Jim. "It will be about the end of ouradventures, I guess."
"If the Wizard was here," said one of the piglets, sobbing bitterly,"he would not see us suffer so."
"We ought to have called him and Dorothy when we were first attacked,"added Eureka. "But never mind; be brave, my friends, and I will go andtell our masters where you are, and get them to come to your rescue."
The mouth of the hole was nearly filled up now, but the kitten gave aleap through the remaining opening and at once scampered up into theair. The Mangaboos saw her escape, and several of them caught up theirthorns and gave chase, mounting through the air after her. Eureka,however, was lighter than the Mangaboos, and while they could mountonly about a hundred feet above the earth the kitten found she could gonearly two hundred feet. So she ran along over their heads until shehad left them far behind and below and had come to the city and theHouse of the Sorcerer. There she entered in at Dorothy's window in thedome and aroused her from her sleep.
As soon as the little girl knew what had happened she awakened theWizard and Zeb, and at once preparations were made to go to the rescueof Jim and the piglets. The Wizard carried his satchel, which wasquite heavy, and Zeb carried the two lanterns and the oil can.Dorothy's wicker suit-case was still under the seat of the buggy, andby good fortune the boy had also placed the harness in the buggy whenhe had taken it off from Jim to let the horse lie down and rest. Sothere was nothing for the girl to carry but the kitten, which she heldclose to her bosom and tried to comfort, for its little heart was stillbeating rapidly.
Some of the Mangaboos discovered them as soon as they left the House ofthe Sorcerer; but when they started toward the mountain the vegetablepeople allowed them to proceed without interference, yet followed in acrowd behind them so that they could not go back again.
Before long they neared the Black Pit, where a busy swarm of Mangaboos,headed by their Princess, was engaged in piling up glass rocks beforethe entrance.
"Stop, I command you!" cried the Wizard, in an angry tone, and at oncebegan pulling down the rocks to liberate Jim and the piglets. Insteadof opposing him in this they stood back in silence until he had made agood-sized hole in the barrier, when by order of the Princess they allsprang forward and thrust out their sharp thorns.
Dorothy hopped inside the opening to escape being pricked, and Zeb andthe Wizard, after enduring a few stabs from the thorns, were glad tofollow her. At once the Mangaboos began piling up the rocks of glassagain, and as the little man realized that they were all about to beentombed in the mountain he said to the children:
"My dears, what shall we do? Jump out and fight?"
"What's the use?" replied Dorothy. "I'd as soon die here as live muchlonger among these cruel and heartless people."
"That's the way I feel about it," remarked Zeb, rubbing his wounds."I've had enough of the Mangaboos."
"All right," said the Wizard; "I'm with you, whatever you decide. Butwe can't live long in this cavern, that's certain."
Noticing that the light was growing dim he picked up his nine piglets,patted each one lovingly on its fat little head, and placed themcarefully in his inside pocket.
Zeb struck a match and lighted one of the lanterns. The rays of thecolored suns were now shut out from them forever, for the last chinkshad been filled up in the wall that separated their prison from theLand of the Mangaboos.
"How big is this hole?" asked Dorothy.
"I'll explore it and see," replied the boy.
So he carried the lantern back for quite a distance, while Dorothy andthe Wizard followed at his side. The cavern did not come to an end, asthey had expected it would, but slanted upward through the great glassmountain, running in a direction that promised to lead them to the sideopposite the Mangaboo country.
"It isn't a bad road," observed the Wizard, "and if we followed it itmight lead us to some place that is more comfortable than this blackpocket we are now in. I suppose the vegetable folk were always afraidto enter this cavern because it is dark; but we have our lanterns tolight the way, so I propose that we start out and discover where thistunnel in the mountain leads to."
The others agreed readily to this sensible suggestion, and at once theboy began to harness Jim to the buggy. When all was in readiness thethree took their seats in the buggy and Jim started cautiously alongthe way, Zeb driving while the Wizard and Dorothy each held a lightedlantern so the horse could see where to go.
Sometimes the tunnel was so narrow that the wheels of the buggy grazedthe sides; then it would broaden out as wide as a street; but the floorwas usually smooth, and for a long time they travelled on without anyaccident. Jim stopped sometimes to rest, for the climb was rathersteep and tiresome.
"We must be nearly as high as the six colored suns, by this time," saidDorothy. "I didn't know this mountain was so tall."
"We are certainly a good distance away from the Land of the Mangaboos,"added Zeb; "for we have slanted away from it ever since we started."
But they kept steadily moving, and just as Jim was about tired out withhis long journey the way suddenly grew lighter, and Zeb put out thelanterns to save the oil.
To their joy they found it was a white light that now greeted them, forall were weary of the colored rainbow lights which, after a time, hadmade their eyes ache with their constantly shifting rays. The sides ofthe tunnel showed before them like the inside of a long spy-glass, andthe floor became more level. Jim hastened his lagging steps at thisassurance of a quick relief from the dark passage, and in a few momentsmore they had emerged from the mountain and found themselves face toface with a new and charming country.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz Page 8
