by Speedy In Oz
“Goodness, gracious Grandfathers!” gulped the little boy, holding on to a rib as Terrybubble clattered madly along. “No wonder they call it ‘Big Enough Mountain.’ Wonder what he’s looking for?”
“M-m-me!” shivered Gureeda in a faint voice. “Oh, Speedy, see that lump on his head! It’s Loxo and we’ve fallen right at his feet!”
“But he doesn’t see us yet,” breathed the little boy, the hair on his scalp prickling uncomfortably erect. “Terrybubble can run pretty fast.”
Speedy was right about Terrybubble’s running ability, but he had not taken into account the loud rattling of his bone~loud enough to reach even the ears of the giant on the mountain top. Though it sounded no louder to Loxo than the buzzing of some huge insect, he nevertheless lowered his telescope, and as luck would have it, turned it directly upon the fleeing monster. Magnified a hundred times, Terrybubble was a gruesome sight,- even for a giant, and the two figures in his chest made him still more astonishing.
“Soup bones!” roared Loxo, with a huge sniff, and thrusting the telescope in his pocket, he took out a
rusty looking magnet, the same one Kachewka had read about in the book of giants, and held it out toward the runaways. It is useless for me to try to describe the feelings of Terrybubble and his two companions as the magnet drew them relentlessly backward, dragged them up through the air and set them down with a thump on the top of Big Enough Mountain, beside the giant.
Picking up the dinosaur between his thumb and forefinger, Loxo peered at him with great curiosity and interest. Then he began to shake him playfully like a rattle. If this had continued for more than a second, Speedy and the Princess would have been demolished, but soon tiring of this amusement, Loxo lifted Terrybubble close to his crooked nose and for the first time had a real good view of the two figures his chest.
“Why, whizzle my whiskers, if it isn’t the child of that old Umbrellephant who hit me with his island,” he bellowed joyfully.
“Two of them! Come out, you little pig-tailed rascals, and get to work on my boots! I was looking for yourr father’s island this very minute. Why should I wait three months for a boot lacer? Hah! Hah! This is more than I bargained for! Two boot lacers, one
for each foot. Did the King send you ahead of time in this animated bird cage? Come out, before I shake you out or fling you into the soup kettle with this heap of bones who brought you.”
Breathing heavily, Loxo set them down on a rocky ledge level with his face. While Terrybubble snorted and rumbled in a manner that would have petrified anyone but a giant, Speedy and Gureeda unwillingly slid down the vine and stood hand in hand just beneath the giant’s nose.
“Say yes to everything,” whispered Speedy, as the Princess, rather pale but quite proudly, looked up at the great ogre.
“Well, are you ready to lace my boots, or shall it be the soup kettle?” rumbled Loxo, peering at them threateningly.
“Boots!” shouted Speedy pleasantly, and rather disappointed at the quick and agreeable answer the giant, grumbling a little to himself, took two heavy pieces of cord from his pocket. Knotting one around the waist of each of his prisoners, he lifted them up and in one dizzy swoop deposited them at his feet. Then, bending laboriously, he tied the end of each cord to his ankles, and thus tethered, one to each foot, the unfortunate children faced the tedious task of lacing his tremendous boots. Terrybubble, still
snorting and rumbling, was shoved into a shallow cave at the foot of the mountain, and as Loxo rolled a big rock before the opening Speedy and Gureeda felt more frightened and forsaken than ever.
“Mind you jump aboard when I start walking, or you’ll be crushed,” roared the giant, squinting at them evilly. Then, straightening up, he sat down on Big Enough Mountain and taking out a monster mouth organ began to play the most dismal, out-of-tune, ear-splitting melodies Speedy ever had had the ill luck to listen to. Trying to talk above the dreadful din was impossible, so, nodding encouragingly to his downcast companion, tied to the giant’s left foot, Speedy set himself to straighten out the tangle Loxo had managed to get in his right boot laces. Pulling the immense black cords through the proper holes was difficult indeed, and after each tug Speedy was forced to rest. But mounting up the giant’s ankle as one would climb the rigging of a ship, he finally completed the arduous and tiresome job. Then, as the cord tying him to the giant’s right ankle was long enough for him to cross over to the left, he descended and went to help Gureeda with her boot.
“If I only had my old suit on I could cut us loose with my pen knife,” he fumed, pushing and pulling
the giant’s laces with vindictive jerks. “But don’t you worry, we’ll get off somehow! A nice place for a Princess this is, I must say!” Tying the laces at the top with an angry violence, Speedy started down the ladderlike laces, closely followed by Gureeda, who had helped him as much as she could.
“It’s just as bad for you. Look at all the trouble I’ve gotten you into,” sighed Gureeda, seating herself disconsolately on the broad toe of Loxo’s boot. “Whatever’ll we do if he starts walking?”
“Hook your arms through the laces and I guess we’d better stay aboard for the present. But cheer up!” Speedy put an inquiring hand behind his ear to listen. “At least he’s stopped playing that murderous mouth organ.”
“But what is that other awful noise?” asked Gureeda. wincing at the roars and snufflings that came rolling and rumbling like thunder down the mountain side.
“Snores!” explained Speedy, making a wry face. “Now you stay right where you are, and I’ll go back to my boot and try to think of some way to get us off. No use working on these knots round our waists. They’re pulled so tight only an iron-fingered monkey could pull them loose.”
“And I don’t see any iron-fingered monkeys around
here, do you?” Gureeda smiled as she asked the question, and taking the book she had brought down from Terrybubble’s chest from the pocket of her jacket, she settled herself composedly to read.
Marveling at her calm courage and wishing the rest of the books were not shut up with Terrybubble in the cave, Speedy walked slowly back to Loxo’s right boot and swung himself savagely up on the toe. Never in his wildest dreams or imaginings had he expected to find himself tied to a giant, and the more he considered their situation the more dangerous and terrible it became.
“It’ll be bad enough if he walks or runs, but what’ll we do if he starts wading?” groaned the little boy, glancing fearfully at Loxo’s leg, stretching like a tree trunk up over his head.
CHAPTER 17
Waddy Has Another Idea
At night the lamps in the Wizard’s
tower had burned steadily, as Waddy, his
beardirly bristling with excitement,
worked away on a new and secret invention,
beating, blowing and stirring strange liquidtogether in his golden mixing bowl.
“Ho, this will fix him!” he wheezed, satisfied at last, and shoving the bowl into an electric oven he sat wearily down in his great arm chair to rest. The last star had twinkled out, and under the eaves the birds were beginning to twitter about another day.
Listening to their eager chattering, Waddy smiled. He, too, in spite of his long night’s labors, was looking forward to a pleasant morning. He had important news for the King, and glancing from the clock to the oven, he waited impatiently for the mixture in the golden bowl to come to the proper temperature. A short doze helped pass the time, but as the bell attached to the oven rang sharply he fairly sprang awake. Being careful not to burn his fingers, he removed his precious mixture from the fire and setting it on a small table, did the umbrella jig all the way round the room.
“Wait till Sizzer hears about this,” he puffed joyfully. “This will lift his heart and chins for him and keep me a couple of sneezes ahead of the Grand Grumboleer.” Covering the smoking bowl with a silver cloth, the Wizard gaily kissed his fingers in farewell, and without even stopping to replait his beard or wash his face,
skipped cumbersomely out
of his laboratory, whisked down the spiral stair and five minutes later was tapping at the King’s door. In response to his sorrowful command to enter, Waddy bounded joyously into the royal presence.
“Cheer up, old Pumpkin, our troubles are over!” Hurrying to the King’s bedside, he gave him a hearty thump between the shoulder blades. “At last I have found a way to settle that giant and punish him well for his disgusting impertinence!”
“You have!”
Sizzeroo’s face brightened up like a big red paper lantern when somebody suddenly lights the candle inside. “What is it? How will you do it? You mean the Princess and Speedy are really safe?”
“Speedy?” exclaimed Waddy with a puzzled frown. “What’s he got to do with Loxo? He hasn’t even heard of him, bless his brave heart! You know,”-the King’s magician paused and looked earnestly at Sizzero-“I couldn’t love that boy any better if he were your Majesty’s own son. I wish we could persuade him to stay here and grow up with our Princess. He might even marry her in a hundred years or so and succeed your Highness as Ruler of the Island! But what is this about saving him?” Waddy interrupted himself irritably. “He’s done plenty towards saving this Island, but I’ve done
nothing toward saving him from a giant or anyone else. Why should I? He is in no danger!”
“Not now,” sighed Sizzeroo, leaning back thankfully against his pillows. “And he was in no real danger, anyway, for I never should have consented to such a thing, but you know how Kachewka is when he gets an idea into his head.”
“Kachewka-Speedy? What in mince meat are you talking about?” Pushing his specs up on his forehead, Waddy stared in exasperation at his Majesty.
“Oh, nothing, nothing,” murmured the King.
Nevertheless, he hastened to explain. “You see, Kachewka remarking how much Speedy resembled my daughter in size and coloring, decided to keep him here and turn him over to Loxo instead of the Princess. Naturally, I refused to even consider such a scheme.”
“Oh! Oh! I’ll pull his long nose for this! Where is the mizzling, meddling, skinny old scoundrel? Just wait till I catch him, I’ll turn him into a goose egg and boil him for breakfast!” Flouncing out of the arm chair, Waddy hurled himself through the door, breathing heavily.
“Wait! Wait!”
Leaping out of bed, the plump monarch rushed violently after his still plumper
Wizard and after great exertion and argument managed to coax him back into the room. Still puffing and muttering with displeasure, Waddy again lowered himself into the chair and as Sizzeroo continued his efforts to calm him down, in burst Kachewka himself.
“He’s gone!” croaked the King’s chief counselor, flapping his hands like fins. “Gone! Kachew! Gone! And the giant will get the Princess!”
“Who’s gone?” demanded Waddy, grabbing Kachewka by the shoulders and shaking him roughly backward and forward.
“The boy! The dinosaur!” coughed the old counselor, too upset to notice Waddy’s furious expression.
“Meander just brought the news.”
“I could have told you that last evening,” purred Pansy, who had followed sedately on the heels of the agitated Minister. Springing up on the foot of the King’s bed, she surveyed them all with a bored and thoroughly annoyed expression. “What did you expect?” she inquired indignantly, as Waddy let go Kachewka and lunged toward her. “When Terrybubble heard Kachewka’s fine little scheme for throwing Speedy to the giant, he quite naturally decided to leave. In fact, I helped him,” declared the
Watch Cat defiantly, and enjoying to the fullest extent the frightened expression of Kachewka. Pansy disapproved completely of the King’s wily adviser and anything she could do to embarrass or annoy him gave her the most exquisite satisfaction.
“You helped him?” gasped Waddy, clutching the golden post of the King’s bed for support.
“Yes,” the Watch Cat informed him solemnly.
“I turned the Island toward the Emerald City of Oz and advised the big buster to take the boy, put up his parashoot and jump off. So he did!”
“Oh! Oh! and Oh!” Each groan of Waddy’s was louder and more anguished than the last, as he saw all of his carefully thought out plans for dealing with the giant brought to naught. Not only was Speedy running a great risk in the jump to Oz, but when Ozma heard from him the whole story of Loxo and his threat, it would be the famous Wizard of Oz who would solve the difficulty and get all the credit for saving the Princess. Not only that, Umbrella Island would doubtless be severely punished for Kachewka’s base scheme against an innocent mortal visitor. As the King and his Wizard tried to adjust themselves to this new trouble and calamity, Metoo, Gureeda’s personal maid and attendant, clattered breathlessly along the passageway on her high useless heels.
“The Princess is not-is not-is not in her room! The Princess is not here or there or anywhere!” cried Metoo, waving her arms about in violent circles.
“I could have told you that too,” yawned Pansy walking calmly up and
down the foot of the King’s bed. “While he was about it, that monster decided to save the Princess as well as the boy. And a good idea I call it!”
“But she may be dashed to pieces, or caught on the spire of some ruined castle! Oh my, me, you, her, them and us!” wailed Sizzeroo, beating his chest. “Quick, Waddy, to the Emerald City of Oz! As for you” The King jerked round toward Kachewka, “you shall answer for this, my fine - my fine - “
Words failed him, but for once the round, jolly face of Sizzeroo looked so grim and purposeful that Kachewka rushed wildly from the apartment, squeaking like a frightened rat as Waddy sent a gold tobacco box banging after him. Then, while the King shouted loudly for his attendants and guards, the Wizard ran out to the royal terrace and set the course for the Capital of Oz. Umbrella Island was curving slowly over the Munchkin country, when he reached the great silver shaft and giving the wheel a sharp turn, he set the dials for full speed ahead
and with a heavy heart waited for the glittering towers and spires of Ozma’s splendid city to swing into view.
What would they find when they reached their goal?
Suppose the umbrella he had made for Terrybubble had blown inside out in its downward rush! Suppose the Princess and Speedy had been crushed by the fall and poor Terrybubble reduced to a heap of wreckage! What could he ever do to Kachewka to repay him for the miserable meddling scheme that had so upset all his plans for subduing Loxo and saving Umbrella Island from the wrath of the powerful
little ruler of Oz?
As the blue of the Munchkin country melted into the bright green of the forests surrounding the Emerald City, Waddy with numb and trembling fingers slanted Umbrella Island downward, almost afraid of what he should discover.
CHAPTER 18
In the Emerald City
THE morning was so clear and bright that Ozma and Dorothy were having breakfast in the Royal Gardens.
Dorothy, a little girl
from Kansas, was one of the first mortals to reach the wonderful Kingdom of Oz and after several exciting visits had been invited by Ozma to live in the capital. There were two other little girls residing in the Royal Palace, but Dorothy, having come first, was Ozma’s closest friend and adviser, and next to the Scarcecrow the most popular person at court.
The Scarecrow himself had been discovered by Dorothy on her first trip and they had made the journey to the Emerald City together, meeting on the way, the Cowardly Lion and the famous Tin Woodman, who is now ruler of the Winkies.
As you many friends of the Scarecrow already know, this live and lively straw-stuffed gentleman who had once been Emperor of Oz is more interesting and jolly than five or six ordinary people-so obliging and clever that he is much in demand at the capital. Though he has a golden, corn-ear castle of his own in the Winkie Country, he spends most of his time in the Emerald City and had come over the evening before to invite Ozma and all the celebrities to a pop corn party.
&nbs
p; As Dorothy and Ozma, attended by two dignified footmen, ate their strawberries and cream, the
Scarecrow, who did not require nourishment of any kind, told them all his plans for the celebration. The Soldier with Green Whiskers, who constituted the whole army of Oz, marched solemnly up and down under the tullp trees to see that the royal break-fasters were not disturbed, listening with all ears, for though he was terribly opposed to gun fire he had no objections to pop corn and was inordinately fond of this delicacy.
They were all so busy talking and laughing that they did not at first notice the dark cloud settling gradually over the garden and whole radiant city. But soon, it grew so dark that even the Scarecrow interrupted himself long enough to glance up at the sky.
“Thunder storm coming, girls! Better run for the castle! Whew, what a cloud!”
“Reminds me of a Kansas cyclone,” murmured Dorothy, pushing back her chair. But Ozma, though only a little girl, was a real Queen and perhaps on this account more used to examining everything with extreme attention and care.
“This is no cloud,” she told them, quietly remaining in her place. “It is too large and solid.” At this precise minute, Waddy, wishing to come somewhere near the castle itself, swung Umbrella Island back Page 186
ward, leaving the whole garden in bright sunlight, and staring up with mingled feelings of interest and alarm, Ozma and her advisers saw three figures jump from the edge of the cloud and come billowing grotesquely downward. Each grasped the handle of an immense umbrella, and before Dorothy or the Scarecrow had time to form any more theories or opinions, the three, with three distinct thumps, landed in a flower bed about thirty feet distant.
“Skywaymen!” shrieked the Soldier with the Green Whiskers, bumping into a tree in his hurry to get away. “Look out! Look out! They’re armed!”
