Chapter XII.
The Search for the Wicked Witch.
The soldier with the green whiskers led them through the streets ofthe Emerald City until they reached the room where the Guardian of theGates lived. This officer unlocked their spectacles to put them back inhis great box, and then he politely opened the gate for our friends.
"Which road leads to the Wicked Witch of the West?" asked Dorothy.
"There is no road," answered the Guardian of the Gates; "no one everwishes to go that way."
"How, then, are we to find her?" enquired the girl.
"That will be easy," replied the man; "for when she knows you are inthe Country of the Winkies she will find you, and make you all herslaves."
"Perhaps not," said the Scarecrow, "for we mean to destroy her."
"Oh, that is different," said the Guardian of the Gates. "No one hasever destroyed her before, so I naturally thought she would makeslaves of you, as she has of all the rest. But take care; for she iswicked and fierce, and may not allow you to destroy her. Keep to theWest, where the sun sets, and you cannot fail to find her."
They thanked him and bade him good-bye, and turned toward the West,walking over fields of soft grass dotted here and there with daisiesand buttercups. Dorothy still wore the pretty silk dress she hadput on in the palace, but now, to her surprise, she found it was nolonger green, but pure white. The ribbon around Toto's neck had alsolost its green color and was as white as Dorothy's dress.
The Emerald City was soon left far behind. As they advanced theground became rougher and hillier, for there were no farms nor housesin this country of the West, and the ground was untilled.
In the afternoon the sun shone hot in their faces, for there were notrees to offer them shade; so that before night Dorothy and Toto andthe Lion were tired, and lay down upon the grass and fell asleep,with the Woodman and the Scarecrow keeping watch.
Now the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, yet that was aspowerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere. So, as she sat inthe door of her castle, she happened to look around and saw Dorothylying asleep, with her friends all about her. They were a longdistance off, but the Wicked Witch was angry to find them in hercountry; so she blew upon a silver whistle that hung around her neck.
At once there came running to her from all directions a pack of greatwolves. They had long legs and fierce eyes and sharp teeth.
"Go to those people," said the Witch, "and tear them to pieces."
"Are you not going to make them your slaves?" asked the leader of thewolves.
"No," she answered, "one is of tin, and one of straw; one is a girland another a Lion. None of them is fit to work, so you may tear theminto small pieces."
"Very well," said the wolf, and he dashed away at full speed,followed by the others.
It was lucky the Scarecrow and the Woodman were wide awake and heardthe wolves coming.
"This is my fight," said the Woodman; "so get behind me and I willmeet them as they come."
He seized his axe, which he had made very sharp, and as the leaderof the wolves came on the Tin Woodman swung his arm and chopped thewolf's head from its body, so that it immediately died. As soon as hecould raise his axe another wolf came up, and he also fell under thesharp edge of the Tin Woodman's weapon. There were forty wolves, andforty times a wolf was killed; so that at last they all lay dead in aheap before the Woodman.
Then he put down his axe and sat beside the Scarecrow, who said,
"It was a good fight, friend."
They waited until Dorothy awoke the next morning. The little girl wasquite frightened when she saw the great pile of shaggy wolves, butthe Tin Woodman told her all. She thanked him for saving them and satdown to breakfast, after which they started again upon their journey.
Now this same morning the Wicked Witch came to the door of her castleand looked out with her one eye that could see afar off. She saw allher wolves lying dead, and the strangers still travelling through hercountry. This made her angrier than before, and she blew her silverwhistle twice.
Straightway a great flock of wild crows came flying toward her,enough to darken the sky. And the Wicked Witch said to the King Crow,
"Fly at once to the strangers; peck out their eyes and tear them topieces."
The wild crows flew in one great flock toward Dorothy and hercompanions. When the little girl saw them coming she was afraid. Butthe Scarecrow said,
"This is my battle; so lie down beside me and you will not be harmed."
So they all lay upon the ground except the Scarecrow, and he stoodup and stretched out his arms. And when the crows saw him they werefrightened, as these birds always are by scarecrows, and did not dareto come any nearer. But the King Crow said,
"It is only a stuffed man. I will peck his eyes out."
The King Crow flew at the Scarecrow, who caught it by the head andtwisted its neck until it died. And then another crow flew at him,and the Scarecrow twisted its neck also. There were forty crows, andforty times the Scarecrow twisted a neck, until at last all werelying dead beside him. Then he called to his companions to rise, andagain they went upon their journey.
When the Wicked Witch looked out again and saw all her crows lying ina heap, she got into a terrible rage, and blew three times upon hersilver whistle.
Forthwith there was heard a great buzzing in the air, and a swarmof black bees came flying towards her. "Go to the strangers andsting them to death!" commanded the Witch, and the bees turned andflew rapidly until they came to where Dorothy and her friends werewalking. But the Woodman had seen them coming and the Scarecrow haddecided what to do.
"Take out my straw and scatter it over the little girl and the dogand the lion," he said to the Woodman, "and the bees cannot stingthem." This the Woodman did, and as Dorothy lay close beside the Lionand held Toto in her arms, the straw covered them entirely.
The bees came and found no one but the Woodman to sting, so theyflew at him and broke off all their stings against the tin, withouthurting the Woodman at all. And as bees cannot live when their stingsare broken that was the end of the black bees, and they lay scatteredthick about the Woodman, like little heaps of fine coal.
Then Dorothy and the Lion got up, and the girl helped the Tin Woodmanput the straw back into the Scarecrow again, until he was as good asever. So they started upon their journey once more.
The Wicked Witch was so angry when she saw her black bees in littleheaps like fine coal that she stamped her foot and tore her hair andgnashed her teeth. And then she called a dozen of her slaves, whowere the Winkies, and gave them sharp spears, telling them to go tothe strangers and destroy them.
The Winkies were not a brave people, but they had to do as they weretold; so they marched away until they came near to Dorothy. Then theLion gave a great roar and sprang toward them, and the poor Winkieswere so frightened that they ran back as fast as they could.
When they returned to the castle the Wicked Witch beat them wellwith a strap, and sent them back to their work, after which she satdown to think what she should do next. She could not understand howall her plans to destroy these strangers had failed; but she was apowerful Witch, as well as a wicked one, and she soon made up hermind how to act.
There was, in her cupboard, a Golden Cap, with a circle of diamonds andrubies running round it. This Golden Cap had a charm. Whoever ownedit could call three times upon the Winged Monkeys, who would obeyany order they were given. But no person could command these strangecreatures more than three times. Twice already the Wicked Witch hadused the charm of the Cap. Once was when she had made the Winkies herslaves, and set herself to rule over their country. The Winged Monkeyshad helped her do this. The second time was when she had fought againstthe Great Oz himself, and driven him out of the land of the West. TheWinged Monkeys had also helped her in doing this. Only once more couldshe use this Golden Cap, for which reason she did not like to do sountil all her other po
wers were exhausted. But now that her fiercewolves and her wild crows and her stinging bees were gone, and herslaves had been scared away by the Cowardly Lion, she saw there wasonly one way left to destroy Dorothy and her friends.
So the Wicked Witch took the Golden Cap from her cupboard and placedit upon her head.
Then she stood upon her left foot and said, slowly, "Ep-pe, pep-pe,kak-ke!"
Next she stood upon her right foot and said, "Hil-lo, hol-lo, hel-lo!"
After this she stood upon both feet and cried in a loud voice,"Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!"
Now the charm began to work. The sky was darkened, and a lowrumbling sound was heard in the air. There was a rushing of manywings; a great chattering and laughing; and the sun came out of thedark sky to show the Wicked Witch surrounded by a crowd of monkeys,each with a pair of immense and powerful wings on his shoulders.
One, much bigger than the others, seemed to be their leader. He flewclose to the Witch and said,
"You have called us for the third and last time. What do you command?"
"Go to the strangers who are within my land and destroy them allexcept the Lion," said the Wicked Witch. "Bring that beast to me, forI have a mind to harness him like a horse, and make him work."
"Your commands shall be obeyed," said the leader; and then, with agreat deal of chattering and noise, the Winged Monkeys flew away tothe place where Dorothy and her friends were walking.
Some of the Monkeys seized the Tin Woodman and carried him throughthe air until they were over a country thickly covered with sharprocks. Here they dropped the poor Woodman, who fell a great distanceto the rocks, where he lay so battered and dented that he couldneither move nor groan.
Others of the Monkeys caught the Scarecrow, and with their longfingers pulled all of the straw out of his clothes and head. Theymade his hat and boots and clothes into a small bundle and threw itinto the top branches of a tall tree.
The remaining Monkeys threw pieces of stout rope around the Lionand wound many coils about his body and head and legs, until he wasunable to bite or scratch or struggle in any way. Then they liftedhim up and flew away with him to the Witch's castle, where he wasplaced in a small yard with a high iron fence around it, so that hecould not escape.
But Dorothy they did not harm at all. She stood, with Toto in herarms, watching the sad fate of her comrades and thinking it wouldsoon be her turn. The leader of the Winged Monkeys flew up to her,his long, hairy arms stretched out and his ugly face grinningterribly; but he saw the mark of the Good Witch's kiss upon herforehead and stopped short, motioning the others not to touch her.
"_The Monkeys wound many coils about his body._"]
"We dare not harm this little girl," he said to them, "for she isprotected by the Power of Good, and that is greater than the Powerof Evil. All we can do is to carry her to the castle of the WickedWitch and leave her there."
So, carefully and gently, they lifted Dorothy in their arms andcarried her swiftly through the air until they came to the castle,where they set her down upon the front door step. Then the leadersaid to the Witch,
"We have obeyed you as far as we were able. The Tin Woodman and theScarecrow are destroyed, and the Lion is tied up in your yard. Thelittle girl we dare not harm, nor the dog she carries in her arms. Yourpower over our band is now ended, and you will never see us again."
Then all the Winged Monkeys, with much laughing and chattering andnoise, flew into the air and were soon out of sight.
The Wicked Witch was both surprised and worried when she saw the markon Dorothy's forehead, for she knew well that neither the WingedMonkeys nor she, herself, dare hurt the girl in any way. She lookeddown at Dorothy's feet, and seeing the Silver Shoes, began to tremblewith fear, for she knew what a powerful charm belonged to them. Atfirst the Witch was tempted to run away from Dorothy; but she happenedto look into the child's eyes and saw how simple the soul behind themwas, and that the little girl did not know of the wonderful power theSilver Shoes gave her. So the Wicked Witch laughed to herself, andthought, "I can still make her my slave, for she does not know how touse her power." Then she said to Dorothy, harshly and severely,
"Come with me; and see that you mind everything I tell you, for ifyou do not I will make an end of you, as I did of the Tin Woodman andthe Scarecrow."
Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castleuntil they came to the kitchen, where the Witch bade her clean the potsand kettles and sweep the floor and keep the fire fed with wood.
Dorothy went to work meekly, with her mind made up to work as hard asshe could; for she was glad the Wicked Witch had decided not to killher.
With Dorothy hard at work the Witch thought she would go into thecourt-yard and harness the Cowardly Lion like a horse; it would amuseher, she was sure, to make him draw her chariot whenever she wishedto go to drive. But as she opened the gate the Lion gave a loud roarand bounded at her so fiercely that the Witch was afraid, and ran outand shut the gate again.
"If I cannot harness you," said the Witch to the Lion, speakingthrough the bars of the gate, "I can starve you. You shall havenothing to eat until you do as I wish."
So after that she took no food to the imprisoned Lion; but every dayshe came to the gate at noon and asked,
"Are you ready to be harnessed like a horse?"
And the Lion would answer,
"No. If you come in this yard I will bite you."
The reason the Lion did not have to do as the Witch wished was thatevery night, while the woman was asleep Dorothy carried him food fromthe cupboard. After he had eaten he would lie down on his bed of straw,and Dorothy would lie beside him and put her head on his soft, shaggymane, while they talked of their troubles and tried to plan some way toescape. But they could find no way to get out of the castle, for it wasconstantly guarded by the yellow Winkies, who were the slaves of theWicked Witch and too afraid of her not to do as she told them.
The girl had to work hard during the day, and often the Witchthreatened to beat her with the same old umbrella she always carried inher hand. But, in truth, she did not dare to strike Dorothy, because ofthe mark upon her forehead. The child did not know this, and was fullof fear for herself and Toto. Once the Witch struck Toto a blow withher umbrella and the brave little dog flew at her and bit her leg, inreturn. The Witch did not bleed where she was bitten, for she was sowicked that the blood in her had dried up many years before.
Dorothy's life became very sad as she grew to understand that itwould be harder than ever to get back to Kansas and Aunt Em again.Sometimes she would cry bitterly for hours, with Toto sitting at herfeet and looking into her face, whining dismally to show how sorry hewas for his little mistress. Toto did not really care whether he wasin Kansas or the Land of Oz so long as Dorothy was with him; but heknew the little girl was unhappy, and that made him unhappy too.
Now the Wicked Witch had a great longing to have for her own theSilver Shoes which the girl always wore. Her Bees and her Crows andher Wolves were lying in heaps and drying up, and she had used upall the power of the Golden Cap; but if she could only get hold ofthe Silver Shoes they would give her more power than all the otherthings she had lost. She watched Dorothy carefully, to see if sheever took off her shoes, thinking she might steal them. But the childwas so proud of her pretty shoes that she never took them off exceptat night and when she took her bath. The Witch was too much afraidof the dark to dare go in Dorothy's room at night to take the shoes,and her dread of water was greater than her fear of the dark, so shenever came near when Dorothy was bathing. Indeed, the old Witch nevertouched water, nor ever let water touch her in any way.
But the wicked creature was very cunning, and she finally thought ofa trick that would give her what she wanted. She placed a bar of ironin the middle of the kitchen floor, and then by her magic arts madethe iron invisible to human eyes. So that when Dorothy walked acrossthe floor she stumbled over the bar, not being able to see it, andfell at full length. She was not much hurt, but in her fall one ofthe
Silver Shoes came off, and before she could reach it the Witchhad snatched it away and put it on her own skinny foot.
The wicked woman was greatly pleased with the success of her trick,for as long as she had one of the shoes she owned half the power oftheir charm, and Dorothy could not use it against her, even had sheknown how to do so.
The little girl, seeing she had lost one of her pretty shoes, grewangry, and said to the Witch,
"Give me back my shoe!"
"I will not," retorted the Witch, "for it is now my shoe, and notyours."
"You are a wicked creature!" cried Dorothy. "You have no right totake my shoe from me."
"I shall keep it, just the same," said the Witch, laughing at her,"and some day I shall get the other one from you, too."
This made Dorothy so very angry that she picked up the bucket ofwater that stood near and dashed it over the Witch, wetting her fromhead to foot.
Instantly the wicked woman gave a loud cry of fear; and then, asDorothy looked at her in wonder, the Witch began to shrink and fallaway.
"See what you have done!" she screamed. "In a minute I shall meltaway."
"I'm very sorry, indeed," said Dorothy, who was truly frightened tosee the Witch actually melting away like brown sugar before her veryeyes.
"Didn't you know water would be the end of me?" asked the Witch, in awailing, despairing voice.
"Of course not," answered Dorothy; "how should I?"
"Well, in a few minutes I shall be all melted, and you will have thecastle to yourself. I have been wicked in my day, but I never thoughta little girl like you would ever be able to melt me and end mywicked deeds. Look out--here I go!"
With these words the Witch fell down in a brown, melted, shapelessmass and began to spread over the clean boards of the kitchen floor.Seeing that she had really melted away to nothing, Dorothy drewanother bucket of water and threw it over the mess. She then sweptit all out the door. After picking out the silver shoe, which wasall that was left of the old woman, she cleaned and dried it with acloth, and put it on her foot again. Then, being at last free to doas she chose, she ran out to the court-yard to tell the Lion that theWicked Witch of the West had come to an end, and that they were nolonger prisoners in a strange land.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Page 12
