11. They Meet the Wooden Gargoyles
Another breathless climb brought our adventurers to a third landingwhere there was a rift in the mountain. On peering out all they couldsee was rolling banks of clouds, so thick that they obscured all else.
But the travellers were obliged to rest, and while they were sitting onthe rocky floor the Wizard felt in his pocket and brought out the ninetiny piglets. To his delight they were now plainly visible, whichproved that they had passed beyond the influence of the magical Valleyof Voe.
"Why, we can see each other again!" cried one, joyfully.
"Yes," sighed Eureka; "and I also can see you again, and the sightmakes me dreadfully hungry. Please, Mr. Wizard, may I eat just one ofthe fat little piglets? You'd never miss ONE of them, I'm sure!"
"What a horrid, savage beast!" exclaimed a piglet; "and after we'vebeen such good friends, too, and played with one another!"
"When I'm not hungry, I love to play with you all," said the kitten,demurely; "but when my stomach is empty it seems that nothing wouldfill it so nicely as a fat piglet."
"And we trusted you so!" said another of the nine, reproachfully.
"And thought you were respectable!" said another.
"It seems we were mistaken," declared a third, looking at the kittentimorously, "no one with such murderous desires should belong to ourparty, I'm sure."
"You see, Eureka," remarked Dorothy, reprovingly, "you are makingyourself disliked. There are certain things proper for a kitten toeat; but I never heard of a kitten eating a pig, under ANY cir'stances."
"Did you ever see such little pigs before?" asked the kitten. "Theyare no bigger than mice, and I'm sure mice are proper for me to eat."
"It isn't the bigness, dear; its the variety," replied the girl."These are Mr. Wizard's pets, just as you are my pet, and it wouldn'tbe any more proper for you to eat them than it would be for Jim to eatyou."
"And that's just what I shall do if you don't let those little balls ofpork alone," said Jim, glaring at the kitten with his round, big eyes."If you injure any one of them I'll chew you up instantly."
The kitten looked at the horse thoughtfully, as if trying to decidewhether he meant it or not.
"In that case," she said, "I'll leave them alone. You haven't manyteeth left, Jim, but the few you have are sharp enough to make meshudder. So the piglets will be perfectly safe, hereafter, as far as Iam concerned."
"That is right, Eureka," remarked the Wizard, earnestly. "Let us allbe a happy family and love one another."
Eureka yawned and stretched herself.
"I've always loved the piglets," she said; "but they don't love me."
"No one can love a person he's afraid of," asserted Dorothy. "If youbehave, and don't scare the little pigs, I'm sure they'll grow veryfond of you."
The Wizard now put the nine tiny ones back into his pocket and thejourney was resumed.
"We must be pretty near the top, now," said the boy, as they climbedwearily up the dark, winding stairway.
"The Country of the Gurgles can't be far from the top of the earth,"remarked Dorothy. "It isn't very nice down here. I'd like to get homeagain, I'm sure."
No one replied to this, because they found they needed all their breathfor the climb. The stairs had become narrower and Zeb and the Wizardoften had to help Jim pull the buggy from one step to another, or keepit from jamming against the rocky walls.
At last, however, a dim light appeared ahead of them, which grewclearer and stronger as they advanced.
"Thank goodness we're nearly there!" panted the little Wizard.
Jim, who was in advance, saw the last stair before him and stuck hishead above the rocky sides of the stairway. Then he halted, duckeddown and began to back up, so that he nearly fell with the buggy ontothe others.
"Let's go down again!" he said, in his hoarse voice.
"Nonsense!" snapped the tired Wizard. "What's the matter with you, oldman?"
"Everything," grumbled the horse. "I've taken a look at this place,and it's no fit country for real creatures to go to. Everything'sdead, up there--no flesh or blood or growing thing anywhere."
"Never mind; we can't turn back," said Dorothy; "and we don't intend tostay there, anyhow."
"It's dangerous," growled Jim, in a stubborn tone.
"See here, my good steed," broke in the Wizard, "little Dorothy and Ihave been in many queer countries in our travels, and always escapedwithout harm. We've even been to the marvelous Land of Oz--haven't we,Dorothy?--so we don't much care what the Country of the Gargoyles islike. Go ahead, Jim, and whatever happens we'll make the best of it."
"All right," answered the horse; "this is your excursion, and not mine;so if you get into trouble don't blame me."
With this speech he bent forward and dragged the buggy up the remainingsteps. The others followed and soon they were all standing upon abroad platform and gazing at the most curious and startling sight theireyes had ever beheld.
"The Country of the Gargoyles is all wooden!" exclaimed Zeb; and so itwas. The ground was sawdust and the pebbles scattered around were hardknots from trees, worn smooth in course of time. There were odd woodenhouses, with carved wooden flowers in the front yards. The tree-trunkswere of coarse wood, but the leaves of the trees were shavings. Thepatches of grass were splinters of wood, and where neither grass norsawdust showed was a solid wooden flooring. Wooden birds flutteredamong the trees and wooden cows were browsing upon the wooden grass;but the most amazing things of all were the wooden people--thecreatures known as Gargoyles.
These were very numerous, for the place was thickly inhabited, and alarge group of the queer people clustered near, gazing sharply upon thestrangers who had emerged from the long spiral stairway.
The Gargoyles were very small of stature, being less than three feet inheight. Their bodies were round, their legs short and thick and theirarms extraordinarily long and stout. Their heads were too big fortheir bodies and their faces were decidedly ugly to look upon. Somehad long, curved noses and chins, small eyes and wide, grinning mouths.Others had flat noses, protruding eyes, and ears that were shaped likethose of an elephant. There were many types, indeed, scarcely twobeing alike; but all were equally disagreeable in appearance. The topsof their heads had no hair, but were carved into a variety of fantasticshapes, some having a row of points or balls around the top, othersdesigns resembling flowers or vegetables, and still others havingsquares that looked like waffles cut criss-cross on their heads. Theyall wore short wooden wings which were fastened to their wooden bodiesby means of wooden hinges with wooden screws, and with these wings theyflew swiftly and noiselessly here and there, their legs being of littleuse to them.
This noiseless motion was one of the most peculiar things about theGargoyles. They made no sounds at all, either in flying or trying tospeak, and they conversed mainly by means of quick signals made withtheir wooden fingers or lips. Neither was there any sound to be heardanywhere throughout the wooden country. The birds did not sing, nordid the cows moo; yet there was more than ordinary activity everywhere.
The group of these queer creatures which was discovered clustered nearthe stairs at first remained staring and motionless, glaring with evileyes at the intruders who had so suddenly appeared in their land. Inturn the Wizard and the children, the horse and the kitten, examinedthe Gargoyles with the same silent attention.
"There's going to be trouble, I'm sure," remarked the horse. "Unhitchthose tugs, Zeb, and set me free from the buggy, so I can fightcomfortably."
"Jim's right," sighed the Wizard. "There's going to be trouble, and mysword isn't stout enough to cut up those wooden bodies--so I shall haveto get out my revolvers."
He got his satchel from the buggy and, opening it, took out two deadlylooking revolvers that made the children shrink back in alarm just tolook at.
"What harm can the Gurgles do?" asked Dorothy. "They have no weaponsto hurt us with."
"Each of their arms is a wooden
club," answered the little man, "andI'm sure the creatures mean mischief, by the looks of their eyes. Eventhese revolvers can merely succeed in damaging a few of their woodenbodies, and after that we will be at their mercy."
"But why fight at all, in that case?" asked the girl.
"So I may die with a clear conscience," returned the Wizard, gravely."It's every man's duty to do the best he knows how; and I'm going to doit."
"Wish I had an axe," said Zeb, who by now had unhitched the horse.
"If we had known we were coming we might have brought along severalother useful things," responded the Wizard. "But we dropped into thisadventure rather unexpectedly."
The Gargoyles had backed away a distance when they heard the sound oftalking, for although our friends had spoken in low tones their wordsseemed loud in the silence surrounding them. But as soon as theconversation ceased, the grinning, ugly creatures arose in a flock andflew swiftly toward the strangers, their long arms stretched out beforethem like the bowsprits of a fleet of sail-boats. The horse hadespecially attracted their notice, because it was the biggest andstrangest creature they had ever seen; so it became the center of theirfirst attack.
But Jim was ready for them, and when he saw them coming he turned hisheels toward them and began kicking out as hard as he could. Crack!crash! bang! went his iron-shod hoofs against the wooden bodies of theGargoyles, and they were battered right and left with such force thatthey scattered like straws in the wind. But the noise and clatterseemed as dreadful to them as Jim's heels, for all who were ableswiftly turned and flew away to a great distance. The others pickedthemselves up from the ground one by one and quickly rejoined theirfellows, so for a moment the horse thought he had won the fight withease.
But the Wizard was not so confident.
"Those wooden things are impossible to hurt," he said, "and all thedamage Jim has done to them is to knock a few splinters from theirnoses and ears. That cannot make them look any uglier, I'm sure, andit is my opinion they will soon renew the attack."
"What made them fly away?" asked Dorothy.
"The noise, of course. Don't you remember how the Champion escapedthem by shouting his battle-cry?"
"Suppose we escape down the stairs, too," suggested the boy. "We havetime, just now, and I'd rather face the invis'ble bears than thosewooden imps."
"No," returned Dorothy, stoutly, "it won't do to go back, for then wewould never get home. Let's fight it out."
"That is what I advise," said the Wizard. "They haven't defeated usyet, and Jim is worth a whole army."
But the Gargoyles were clever enough not to attack the horse the nexttime. They advanced in a great swarm, having been joined by many moreof their kind, and they flew straight over Jim's head to where theothers were standing.
The Wizard raised one of his revolvers and fired into the throng of hisenemies, and the shot resounded like a clap of thunder in that silentplace.
Some of the wooden beings fell flat upon the ground, where theyquivered and trembled in every limb; but most of them managed to wheeland escape again to a distance.
Zeb ran and picked up one of the Gargoyles that lay nearest to him.The top of its head was carved into a crown and the Wizard's bullet hadstruck it exactly in the left eye, which was a hard wooden knot. Halfof the bullet stuck in the wood and half stuck out, so it had been thejar and the sudden noise that had knocked the creature down, more thanthe fact that it was really hurt. Before this crowned Gargoyle hadrecovered himself Zeb had wound a strap several times around its body,confining its wings and arms so that it could not move. Then, havingtied the wooden creature securely, the boy buckled the strap and tossedhis prisoner into the buggy. By that time the others had all retired.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz Page 12
