12. A Wonderful Escape
For a while the enemy hesitated to renew the attack. Then a few ofthem advanced until another shot from the Wizard's revolver made themretreat.
"That's fine," said Zeb. "We've got 'em on the run now, sure enough."
"But only for a time," replied the Wizard, shaking his head gloomily."These revolvers are good for six shots each, but when those are gonewe shall be helpless."
The Gargoyles seemed to realize this, for they sent a few of their bandtime after time to attack the strangers and draw the fire from thelittle man's revolvers. In this way none of them was shocked by thedreadful report more than once, for the main band kept far away andeach time a new company was sent into the battle. When the Wizard hadfired all of his twelve bullets he had caused no damage to the enemyexcept to stun a few by the noise, and so be as no nearer to victorythan in the beginning of the fray.
"What shall we do now?" asked Dorothy, anxiously.
"Let's yell--all together," said Zeb.
"And fight at the same time," added the Wizard. "We will get near Jim,so that he can help us, and each one must take some weapon and do thebest he can. I'll use my sword, although it isn't much account in thisaffair. Dorothy must take her parasol and open it suddenly when thewooden folks attack her. I haven't anything for you, Zeb."
"I'll use the king," said the boy, and pulled his prisoner out of thebuggy. The bound Gargoyle's arms extended far out beyond its head, soby grasping its wrists Zeb found the king made a very good club. Theboy was strong for one of his years, having always worked upon a farm;so he was likely to prove more dangerous to the enemy than the Wizard.
When the next company of Gargoyles advanced, our adventurers beganyelling as if they had gone mad. Even the kitten gave a dreadfullyshrill scream and at the same time Jim the cab-horse neighed loudly.This daunted the enemy for a time, but the defenders were soon out ofbreath. Perceiving this, as well as the fact that there were no moreof the awful "bangs" to come from the revolvers, the Gargoyles advancedin a swarm as thick as bees, so that the air was filled with them.
Dorothy squatted upon the ground and put up her parasol, which nearlycovered her and proved a great protection. The Wizard's sword-bladesnapped into a dozen pieces at the first blow he struck against thewooden people. Zeb pounded away with the Gargoyle he was using as aclub until he had knocked down dozens of foes; but at the last theyclustered so thickly about him that he no longer had room in which toswing his arms. The horse performed some wonderful kicking and evenEureka assisted when she leaped bodily upon the Gargoyles and scratchedand bit at them like a wild-cat.
But all this bravery amounted to nothing at all. The wooden thingswound their long arms around Zeb and the Wizard and held them fast.Dorothy was captured in the same way, and numbers of the Gargoylesclung to Jim's legs, so weighting him down that the poor beast washelpless. Eureka made a desperate dash to escape and scampered alongthe ground like a streak; but a grinning Gargoyle flew after her andgrabbed her before she had gone very far.
All of them expected nothing less than instant death; but to theirsurprise the wooden creatures flew into the air with them and bore themfar away, over miles and miles of wooden country, until they came to awooden city. The houses of this city had many corners, being squareand six-sided and eight-sided. They were tower-like in shape and thebest of them seemed old and weather-worn; yet all were strong andsubstantial.
To one of these houses which had neither doors nor windows, but onlyone broad opening far up underneath the roof, the prisoners werebrought by their captors. The Gargoyles roughly pushed them into theopening, where there was a platform, and then flew away and left them.As they had no wings the strangers could not fly away, and if theyjumped down from such a height they would surely be killed. Thecreatures had sense enough to reason that way, and the only mistakethey made was in supposing the earth people were unable to overcomesuch ordinary difficulties.
Jim was brought with the others, although it took a good many Gargoylesto carry the big beast through the air and land him on the highplatform, and the buggy was thrust in after him because it belonged tothe party and the wooden folks had no idea what it was used for orwhether it was alive or not. When Eureka's captor had thrown thekitten after the others the last Gargoyle silently disappeared, leavingour friends to breathe freely once more.
"What an awful fight!" said Dorothy, catching her breath in littlegasps.
"Oh, I don't know," purred Eureka, smoothing her ruffled fur with herpaw; "we didn't manage to hurt anybody, and nobody managed to hurt us."
"Thank goodness we are together again, even if we are prisoners,"sighed the little girl.
"I wonder why they didn't kill us on the spot," remarked Zeb, who hadlost his king in the struggle.
"They are probably keeping us for some ceremony," the Wizard answered,reflectively; "but there is no doubt they intend to kill us as dead aspossible in a short time."
"As dead as poss'ble would be pretty dead, wouldn't it?" asked Dorothy.
"Yes, my dear. But we have no need to worry about that just now. Letus examine our prison and see what it is like."
The space underneath the roof, where they stood, permitted them to seeon all sides of the tall building, and they looked with much curiosityat the city spread out beneath them. Everything visible was made ofwood, and the scene seemed stiff and extremely unnatural.
From their platform a stair descended into the house, and the childrenand the Wizard explored it after lighting a lantern to show them theway. Several stories of empty rooms rewarded their search, but nothingmore; so after a time they came back to the platform again. Had therebeen any doors or windows in the lower rooms, or had not the boards ofthe house been so thick and stout, escape could have been easy; but toremain down below was like being in a cellar or the hold of a ship, andthey did not like the darkness or the damp smell.
In this country, as in all others they had visited underneath theearth's surface, there was no night, a constant and strong light comingfrom some unknown source. Looking out, they could see into some of thehouses near them, where there were open windows in abundance, and wereable to mark the forms of the wooden Gargoyles moving about in theirdwellings.
"This seems to be their time of rest," observed the Wizard. "Allpeople need rest, even if they are made of wood, and as there is nonight here they select a certain time of the day in which to sleep ordoze."
"I feel sleepy myself," remarked Zeb, yawning.
"Why, where's Eureka?" cried Dorothy, suddenly.
They all looked around, but the kitten was no place to be seen.
"She's gone out for a walk," said Jim, gruffly.
"Where? On the roof?" asked the girl.
"No; she just dug her claws into the wood and climbed down the sides ofthis house to the ground."
"She couldn't climb DOWN, Jim," said Dorothy. "To climb means to goup."
"Who said so?" demanded the horse.
"My school-teacher said so; and she knows a lot, Jim."
"To 'climb down' is sometimes used as a figure of speech," remarked theWizard.
"Well, this was a figure of a cat," said Jim, "and she WENT down,anyhow, whether she climbed or crept."
"Dear me! how careless Eureka is," exclaimed the girl, much distressed."The Gurgles will get her, sure!"
"Ha, ha!" chuckled the old cab-horse; "they're not 'Gurgles,' littlemaid; they're Gargoyles."
"Never mind; they'll get Eureka, whatever they're called."
"No they won't," said the voice of the kitten, and Eureka herselfcrawled over the edge of the platform and sat down quietly upon thefloor.
"Wherever have you been, Eureka?" asked Dorothy, sternly.
"Watching the wooden folks. They're too funny for anything, Dorothy.Just now they are all going to bed, and--what do you think?--theyunhook the hinges of their wings and put them in a corner until theywake up again."
"What, the hinges?"
"No; t
he wings."
"That," said Zeb, "explains why this house is used by them for aprison. If any of the Gargoyles act badly, and have to be put in jail,they are brought here and their wings unhooked and taken away from themuntil they promise to be good."
The Wizard had listened intently to what Eureka had said.
"I wish we had some of those loose wings," he said.
"Could we fly with them?" asked Dorothy.
"I think so. If the Gargoyles can unhook the wings then the power tofly lies in the wings themselves, and not in the wooden bodies of thepeople who wear them. So, if we had the wings, we could probably flyas well as they do--as least while we are in their country and underthe spell of its magic."
"But how would it help us to be able to fly?" questioned the girl.
"Come here," said the little man, and took her to one of the corners ofthe building. "Do you see that big rock standing on the hillsideyonder?" he continued, pointing with his finger.
"Yes; it's a good way off, but I can see it," she replied.
"Well, inside that rock, which reaches up into the clouds, is anarchway very much like the one we entered when we climbed the spiralstairway from the Valley of Voe. I'll get my spy-glass, and then youcan see it more plainly."
He fetched a small but powerful telescope, which had been in hissatchel, and by its aid the little girl clearly saw the opening.
"Where does it lead to?" she asked.
"That I cannot tell," said the Wizard; "but we cannot now be far belowthe earth's surface, and that entrance may lead to another stairwaythat will bring us on top of our world again, where we belong. So, ifwe had the wings, and could escape the Gargoyles, we might fly to thatrock and be saved."
"I'll get you the wings," said Zeb, who had thoughtfully listened toall this. "That is, if the kitten will show me where they are."
"But how can you get down?" enquired the girl, wonderingly.
For answer Zeb began to unfasten Jim's harness, strap by strap, and tobuckle one piece to another until he had made a long leather strip thatwould reach to the ground.
"I can climb down that, all right," he said.
"No you can't," remarked Jim, with a twinkle in his round eyes. "Youmay GO down, but you can only CLIMB up."
"Well, I'll climb up when I get back, then," said the boy, with alaugh. "Now, Eureka, you'll have to show me the way to those wings."
"You must be very quiet," warned the kitten; "for if you make the leastnoise the Gargoyles will wake up. They can hear a pin drop."
"I'm not going to drop a pin," said Zeb.
He had fastened one end of the strap to a wheel of the buggy, and nowhe let the line dangle over the side of the house.
"Be careful," cautioned Dorothy, earnestly.
"I will," said the boy, and let himself slide over the edge.
The girl and the Wizard leaned over and watched Zeb work his waycarefully downward, hand over hand, until he stood upon the groundbelow. Eureka clung with her claws to the wooden side of the house andlet herself down easily. Then together they crept away to enter thelow doorway of a neighboring dwelling.
The watchers waited in breathless suspense until the boy againappeared, his arms now full of the wooden wings.
When he came to where the strap was hanging he tied the wings all in abunch to the end of the line, and the Wizard drew them up. Then theline was let down again for Zeb to climb up by. Eureka quicklyfollowed him, and soon they were all standing together upon theplatform, with eight of the much prized wooden wings beside them.
The boy was no longer sleepy, but full of energy and excitement. Heput the harness together again and hitched Jim to the buggy. Then,with the Wizard's help, he tried to fasten some of the wings to the oldcab-horse.
This was no easy task, because half of each one of the hinges of thewings was missing, it being still fastened to the body of the Gargoylewho had used it. However, the Wizard went once more to hissatchel--which seemed to contain a surprising variety of odds andends--and brought out a spool of strong wire, by means of which theymanaged to fasten four of the wings to Jim's harness, two near his headand two near his tail. They were a bit wiggley, but secure enough ifonly the harness held together.
The other four wings were then fastened to the buggy, two on each side,for the buggy must bear the weight of the children and the Wizard as itflew through the air.
These preparations had not consumed a great deal of time, but thesleeping Gargoyles were beginning to wake up and move around, and soonsome of them would be hunting for their missing wings. So theprisoners resolved to leave their prison at once.
They mounted into the buggy, Dorothy holding Eureka safe in her lap.The girl sat in the middle of the seat, with Zeb and the Wizard on eachside of her. When all was ready the boy shook the reins and said:
"Fly away, Jim!"
"Which wings must I flop first?" asked the cab-horse, undecidedly.
"Flop them all together," suggested the Wizard.
"Some of them are crooked," objected the horse.
"Never mind; we will steer with the wings on the buggy," said Zeb."Just you light out and make for that rock, Jim; and don't waste anytime about it, either."
So the horse gave a groan, flopped its four wings all together, andflew away from the platform. Dorothy was a little anxious about thesuccess of their trip, for the way Jim arched his long neck and spreadout his bony legs as he fluttered and floundered through the air wasenough to make anybody nervous. He groaned, too, as if frightened, andthe wings creaked dreadfully because the Wizard had forgotten to oilthem; but they kept fairly good time with the wings of the buggy, sothat they made excellent progress from the start. The only thing thatanyone could complain of with justice was the fact that they wobbledfirst up and then down, as if the road were rocky instead of being assmooth as the air could make it.
The main point, however, was that they flew, and flew swiftly, if a bitunevenly, toward the rock for which they had headed.
Some of the Gargoyles saw them, presently, and lost no time incollecting a band to pursue the escaping prisoners; so that whenDorothy happened to look back she saw them coming in a great cloud thatalmost darkened the sky.
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz Page 13
