Oz, The Complete Collection

by L. Frank Baum

  “You may as well go back to Tititi-Hoochoo now,” she said, “for the Nome King is as good as conquered already.”

  But Quox shook his head. “No,” said he; “I’ll wait.”

  Chapter 16

  The NAUGHTY NOME

  haggy Man had said nothing during the conversation between Queen Ann and Quox, for the simple reason that he did not consider the matter worth an argument. Safe within his pocket reposed the Love Magnet, which had never failed to win every heart. The nomes, he knew, were not like the heartless Roses and therefore could be won to his side as soon as he exhibited the magic talisman.

  Shaggy’s chief anxiety had been to reach Ruggedo’s Kingdom and now that the entrance lay before him he was confident he would be able to rescue his lost brother. Let Ann and the dragon quarrel as to who should conquer the nomes, if they liked; Shaggy would let them try, and if they failed he had the means of conquest in his own pocket.

  But Ann was positive she could not fail, for she thought her Army could do anything. So she called the officers together and told them how to act, and she also instructed Tik-Tok what to do and what to say.

  “Please do not shoot your gun except as a last resort,” she added, “for I do not wish to be cruel or to shed any blood—unless it is absolutely necessary.”

  “All right,” replied Tik-Tok; “but I do not think Rug-ge-do would bleed if I filled him full of holes and put him in a ci-der press.”

  Then the officers fell in line, the four Generals abreast and then the four Colonels and the four Majors and the four Captains. They drew their glittering swords and commanded Tik-Tok to march, which he did. Twice he fell down, being tripped by the rough rocks, but when he struck the smooth path he got along better. Into the gloomy mouth of the cavern entrance he stepped without hesitation, and after him proudly pranced the officers and Queen Ann. The others held back a little, waiting to see what would happen.

  Of course the Nome King knew they were coming and was prepared to receive them. Just within the rocky passage that led to the jeweled throne-room was a deep pit, which was usually covered. Ruggedo had ordered the cover removed and it now stood open, scarcely visible in the gloom.

  The pit was so large around that it nearly filled the passage and there was barely room for one to walk around it by pressing close to the rock walls. This Tik-Tok did, for his copper eyes saw the pit clearly and he avoided it; but the officers marched straight into the hole and tumbled in a heap on the bottom. An instant later Queen Ann also walked into the pit, for she had her chin in the air and was careless where she placed her feet. Then one of the nomes pulled a lever which replaced the cover on the pit and made the officers of Oogaboo and their Queen fast prisoners.

  As for Tik-Tok, he kept straight on to the cavern where Ruggedo sat in his throne and there he faced the Nome King and said:

  “I here-by con-quer you in the name of Queen Ann So-forth of Oo-ga-boo, whose Ar-my I am, and I de-clare that you are her pris-on-er!”

  Ruggedo laughed at him.

  “Where is this famous Queen?” he asked.

  “She’ll be here in a min-ute,” said Tik-Tok. “Per-haps she stopped to tie her shoe-string.”

  “Now, see here, Tik-Tok,” began the Nome King, in a stern voice, “I’ve had enough of this nonsense. Your Queen and her officers are all prisoners, having fallen into my power, so perhaps you’ll tell me what you mean to do.”

  “My or-ders were to con-quer you,” replied Tik-Tok, “and my ma-chin-er-y has done the best it knows how to car-ry out those or-ders.”

  Ruggedo pounded on his gong and Kaliko appeared, followed closely by General Guph.

  “Take this copper man into the shops and set him to work hammering gold,” commanded the King. “Being run by machinery he ought to be a steady worker. He ought never to have been made, but since he exists I shall hereafter put him to good use.”

  “If you try to cap-ture me,” said Tik-Tok, “I shall fight.”

  “Don’t do that!” exclaimed General Guph, earnestly, “for it will be useless to resist and you might hurt some one.”

  But Tik-Tok raised his gun and took aim and not knowing what damage the gun might do the nomes were afraid to face it.

  While he was thus defying the Nome King and his high officials, Betsy Bobbin rode calmly into the royal cavern, seated upon the back of Hank the mule. The little girl had grown tired of waiting for “something to happen” and so had come to see if Ruggedo had been conquered.

  “Nails and nuggets!” roared the King; “how dare you bring that beast here and enter my presence unannounced?”

  “There wasn’t anybody to announce me,” replied Betsy. “I guess your folks were all busy. Are you conquered yet?”

  “No!” shouted the King, almost beside himself with rage.

  “Then please give me something to eat, for I’m awful hungry,” said the girl. “You see, this conquering business is a good deal like waiting for a circus parade; it takes a long time to get around and don’t amount to much anyhow.”

  The nomes were so much astonished at this speech that for a time they could only glare at her silently, not finding words to reply. The King finally recovered the use of his tongue and said:

  “Earth-crawler! this insolence to my majesty shall be your death-warrant. You are an ordinary mortal, and to stop a mortal from living is so easy a thing to do that I will not keep you waiting half so long as you did for my conquest.”

  “I’d rather you wouldn’t stop me from living,” remarked Betsy, getting off Hank’s back and standing beside him. “And it would be a pretty cheap King who killed a visitor while she was hungry. If you’ll give me something to eat, I’ll talk this killing business over with you afterward; only, I warn you now that I don’t approve of it, and never will.”

  Her coolness and lack of fear impressed the Nome King, although he bore an intense hatred toward all mortals.

  “What do you wish to eat?” he asked gruffly.

  “Oh, a ham-sandwich would do, or perhaps a couple of hard-boiled eggs—”

  “Eggs!” shrieked the three nomes who were present, shuddering till their teeth chattered.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Betsy wonderingly. “Are eggs as high here as they are at home?”

  “Guph,” said the King in an agitated voice, turning to his General, “let us destroy this rash mortal at once! Seize her and take her to the Slimy Cave and lock her in.”

  Guph glanced at Tik-Tok, whose gun was still pointed, but just then Kaliko stole softly behind the copper man and kicked his knee-joints so that they suddenly bent forward and tumbled Tik-Tok to the floor, his gun falling from his grasp.

  Then Guph, seeing Tik-Tok helpless, made a grab at Betsy. At the same time Hank’s heels shot out and caught the General just where his belt was buckled. He rose into the air swift as a cannon-ball, struck the Nome King fairly and flattened his Majesty against the wall of rock on the opposite side of the cavern. Together they fell to the floor in a dazed and crumpled condition, seeing which Kaliko whispered to Betsy:

  “Come with me—quick!—and I will save you.”

  She looked into Kaliko’s face inquiringly and thought he seemed honest and good-natured, so she decided to follow him. He led her and the mule through several passages and into a small cavern very nicely and comfortably furnished.

  “This is my own room,” said he, “but you are quite welcome to use it. Wait here a minute and I’ll get you something to eat.”

  When Kaliko returned he brought a tray containing some broiled mushrooms, a loaf of mineral bread and some petroleum-butter. The butter Betsy could not eat, but the bread was good and the mushrooms delicious.

  “Here’s the door key,” said Kaliko, “and you’d better lock yourself in.”

  “Won’t you let Polychrome and the Rose Princess come here, too?” she asked.

  “I’ll see. Where are they?”

  “I don’t know. I left them outside,” said Betsy.

  “
Well, if you hear three raps on the door, open it,” said Kaliko; “but don’t let anyone in unless they give the three raps.”

  “All right,” promised Betsy, and when Kaliko left the cosy cavern she closed and locked the door.

  In the meantime Ann and her officers, finding themselves prisoners in the pit, had shouted and screamed until they were tired out, but no one had come to their assistance. It was very dark and damp in the pit and they could not climb out because the walls were higher than their heads and the cover was on. The Queen was first angry and then annoyed and then discouraged; but the officers were only afraid. Every one of the poor fellows heartily wished he was back in Oogaboo caring for his orchard, and some were so unhappy that they began to reproach Ann for causing them all this trouble and danger.

  Finally the Queen sat down on the bottom of the pit and leaned her back against the wall. By good luck her sharp elbow touched a secret spring in the wall and a big flat rock swung inward. Ann fell over backward, but the next instant she jumped up and cried to the others:

  “A passage! A passage! Follow me, my brave men, and we may yet escape.”

  Then she began to crawl through the passage, which was as dark and dank as the pit, and the officers followed her in single file. They crawled, and they crawled, and they kept on crawling, for the passage was not big enough to allow them to stand upright. It turned this way and twisted that, sometimes like a corkscrew and sometimes zigzag, but seldom ran for long in a straight line.

  “It will never end—never!” moaned the officers, who were rubbing all the skin off their knees on the rough rocks.

  “It must end,” retorted Ann courageously, “or it never would have been made. We don’t know where it will lead us to, but any place is better than that loathsome pit.”

  So she crawled on, and the officers crawled on, and while they were crawling through this awful underground passage Polychrome and Shaggy and Files and the Rose Princess, who were standing outside the entrance to Ruggedo’s domains, were wondering what had become of them.

  Chapter 17

  A TRAGIC TRANSFORMATION

  on’t let us worry,” said Shaggy to his companions, “for it may take the Queen some time to conquer the Metal Monarch, as Tik-Tok has to do everything in his slow, mechanical way.”

  “Do you suppose they are likely to fail?” asked the Rose Princess.

  “I do, indeed,” replied Shaggy. “This Nome King is really a powerful fellow and has a legion of nomes to assist him, whereas our bold Queen commands a Clockwork Man and a band of faint-hearted officers.”

  “She ought to have let Quox do the conquering,” said Polychrome, dancing lightly upon a point of rock and fluttering her beautiful draperies. “But perhaps the dragon was wise to let her go first, for when she fails to conquer Ruggedo she may become more modest in her ambitions.”

  “Where is the dragon now?” inquired Ozga.

  “Up there on the rocks,” replied Files. “Look, my dear; you may see him from here. He said he would take a little nap while we were mixing up with Ruggedo, and he added that after we had gotten into trouble he would wake up and conquer the Nome King in a jiffy, as his master the Jinjin has ordered him to do.”

  “Quox means well,” said Shaggy, “but I do not think we shall need his services; for just as soon as I am satisfied that Queen Ann and her army have failed to conquer Ruggedo, I shall enter the caverns and show the King my Love Magnet. That he cannot resist; therefore the conquest will be made with ease.”

  This speech of Shaggy Man’s was overheard by the Long-Eared Hearer, who was at that moment standing by Ruggedo’s side. For when the King and Guph had recovered from Hank’s kick and had picked themselves up, their first act was to turn Tik-Tok on his back and put a heavy diamond on top of him, so that he could not get up again. Then they carefully put his gun in a corner of the cavern and the King sent Guph to fetch the Long-Eared Hearer.

  The Hearer was still angry at Ruggedo for breaking his ear, but he acknowledged the Nome King to be his master and was ready to obey his commands. Therefore he repeated Shaggy’s speech to the King, who at once realized that his Kingdom was in grave danger. For Ruggedo knew of the Love Magnet and its powers and was horrified at the thought that Shaggy might show him the magic talisman and turn all the hatred in his heart into love. Ruggedo was proud of his hatred and abhorred love of any sort.

  “Really,” said he, “I’d rather be conquered and lose my wealth and my Kingdom than gaze at that awful Love Magnet. What can I do to prevent the Shaggy Man from taking it out of his pocket?”

  Kaliko returned to the cavern in time to overhear this question, and being a loyal nome and eager to serve his King, he answered by saying:

  “If we can manage to bind the Shaggy Man’s arms, tight to his body, he could not get the Love Magnet out of his pocket.”

  “True!” cried the King in delight at this easy solution of the problem. “Get at once a dozen nomes, with ropes, and place them in the passage where they can seize and bind Shaggy as soon as he enters.”

  This Kaliko did, and meanwhile the watchers outside the entrance were growing more and more uneasy about their friends.

  “I don’t worry so much about the Oogaboo people,” said Polychrome, who had grown sober with waiting, and perhaps a little nervous, “for they could not be killed, even though Ruggedo might cause them much suffering and perhaps destroy them utterly. But we should not have allowed Betsy and Hank to go alone into the caverns. The little girl is mortal and possesses no magic powers whatever, so if Ruggedo captures her she will be wholly at his mercy.”

  “That is indeed true,” replied Shaggy. “I wouldn’t like to have anything happen to dear little Betsy, so I believe I’ll go in right away and put an end to all this worry.”

  “We may as well go with you,” asserted Files, “for by means of the Love Magnet, you can soon bring the Nome King to reason.”

  So it was decided to wait no longer. Shaggy walked through the entrance first, and after him came the others. They had no thought of danger to themselves, and Shaggy, who was going along with his hands thrust into his pockets, was much surprised when a rope shot out from the darkness and twined around his body, pinning down his arms so securely that he could not even withdraw his hands from the pockets. Then appeared several grinning nomes, who speedily tied knots in the ropes and then led the prisoner along the passage to the cavern. No attention was paid to the others, but Files and the Princess followed on after Shaggy, determined not to desert their friend and hoping that an opportunity might arise to rescue him.

  As for Polychrome, as soon as she saw that trouble had overtaken Shaggy she turned and ran lightly back through the passage and out of the entrance. Then she easily leaped from rock to rock until she paused beside the great dragon, who lay fast asleep.

  “Wake up, Quox!” she cried. “It is time for you to act.”

  But Quox did not wake up. He lay as one in a trance, absolutely motionless, with his enormous eyes tight closed. The eyelids had big silver scales on them, like all the rest of his body.

  Polychrome might have thought Quox was dead had she not known that dragons do not die easily or had she not observed his huge body swelling as he breathed. She picked up a piece of rock and pounded against his eyelids with it, saying:

  “Wake up, Quox—wake up!” But he would not waken.

  “Dear me, how unfortunate!” sighed the lovely Rainbow’s Daughter. “I wonder what is the best and surest way to waken a dragon. All our friends may be captured and destroyed while this great beast lies asleep.”

  She walked around Quox two or three times, trying to discover some tender place on his body where a thump or a punch might be felt; but he lay extended along the rocks with his chin flat upon the ground and his legs drawn underneath his body, and all that one could see was his thick sky-blue skin—thicker than that of a rhinoceros—and his silver scales.

  Then, despairing at last of wakening the beast, and worried over the fate of
her friends, Polychrome again ran down to the entrance and hurried along the passage into the Nome King’s cavern.

  Here she found Ruggedo lolling in his throne and smoking a long pipe. Beside him stood General Guph and Kaliko, and ranged before the King were the Rose Princess, Files and the Shaggy Man. Tik-Tok still lay upon the floor, weighted down by the big diamond.

  Ruggedo was now in a more contented frame of mind. One by one he had met the invaders and easily captured them. The dreaded Love Magnet was indeed in Shaggy’s pocket, only a few feet away from the King, but Shaggy was powerless to show it and unless Ruggedo’s eyes beheld the talisman it could not affect him. As for Betsy Bobbin and her mule, he believed Kaliko had placed them in the Slimy Cave, while Ann and her officers he thought safely imprisoned in the pit. Ruggedo had no fear of Files or Ozga, but to be on the safe side he had ordered golden handcuffs placed upon their wrists. These did not cause them any great annoyance but prevented them from making an attack, had they been inclined to do so.

  The Nome King, thinking himself wholly master of the situation, was laughing and jeering at his prisoners when Polychrome, exquisitely beautiful and dancing like a ray of light, entered the cavern.

  “Oho!” cried the King; “a Rainbow under ground, eh?” and then he stared hard at Polychrome, and still harder, and then he sat up and pulled the wrinkles out of his robe and arranged his whiskers. “On my word,” said he, “you are a very captivating creature; moreover, I perceive you are a fairy.”

  “I am Polychrome, the Rainbow’s Daughter,” she said proudly.

  “Well,” replied Ruggedo, “I like you. The others I hate. I hate everybody—but you! Wouldn’t you like to live always in this beautiful cavern, Polychrome? See! the jewels that stud the walls have every tint and color of your Rainbow—and they are not so elusive. I’ll have fresh dewdrops gathered for your feasting every day and you shall be Queen of all my nomes and pull Kaliko’s nose whenever you like.”

  “No, thank you,” laughed Polychrome. “My home is in the sky, and I’m only on a visit to this solid, sordid earth. But tell me, Ruggedo, why my friends have been wound with cords and bound with chains?”