After Billina had entered the
palace Dorothy and Evring sat
down to await the success or
failure of her mission, and the
Nome King occupied his throne
and smoked his long pipe for
a while in a cheerful and contented
mood.
Then the bell
above the throne, which sounded
whenever an enchantment
was broken, began to ring, and
the King gave a start of annoyance
and exclaimed, "Rocketty-ricketts!"
When the bell
rang a second time the King
shouted angrily, "Smudge
and blazes!" and at a third ring
he screamed in a fury, "Hippikaloric!" which
must be a dreadful word because
we don't know what it means.
After that the bell went on
ringing time after time; but
the King was now so violently
enraged that he could not utter
a word, but hopped out of his
throne and all around the room
in a mad frenzy, so that he reminded
Dorothy of a jumping-jack.
The girl was, for her part,
filled with joy at every peal
of the bell, for it announced
the fact that Billina had transformed
one more ornament into a living
person. Dorothy was also amazed
at Billina's success, for she
could not imagine how the yellow
hen was able to guess correctly
from all the bewildering number
of articles clustered in the
rooms of the palace. But after
she had counted ten, and the
bell continued to ring, she knew
that not only the royal family
of Ev, but Ozma and her followers
also, were being restored to
their natural forms, and she
was so delighted that the antics
of the angry King only made her
laugh merrily.
Perhaps the little monarch
could not be more furious than
he was before, but the girl's
laughter nearly drove him frantic,
and he roared at her like a savage
beast. Then, as he found that
all his enchantments were likely
to be dispelled and his victims
every one set free, he suddenly
ran to the little door that opened
upon the balcony and gave the
shrill whistle that summoned
his warriors.
At once the army filed out
of the gold and silver doors
in great numbers, and marched
up a winding stairs and into
the throne room, led by a stern
featured Nome who was their captain.
When they had nearly filled the
throne room they formed ranks
in the big underground cavern
below, and then stood still until
they were told what to do next.
Dorothy had pressed back to
one side of the cavern when the
warriors entered, and now she
stood holding little Prince Evring's
hand while the great Lion crouched
upon one side and the enormous
Tiger crouched on the other side.
"Seize that girl!" shouted
the King to his captain, and
a group of warriors sprang forward
to obey. But both the Lion and
Tiger snarled so fiercely and
bared their strong, sharp teeth
so threateningly, that the men
drew back in alarm.
"Don't mind them!" cried the
Nome King; "they cannot leap
beyond the places where they
now stand."
"But they can bite those who
attempt to touch the girl," said
the captain.
"I'll fix that," answered the
King. "I'll enchant them again,
so that they can't open their
jaws."
He stepped out of the throne
to do this, but just then the
Sawhorse ran up behind him and
gave the fat monarch a powerful
kick with both his wooden hind
legs.
"Ow! Murder! Treason!" yelled
the King, who had been hurled
against several of his warriors
and was considerably bruised. "Who
did that?"
"I did," growled the Sawhorse,
viciously. "You let Dorothy alone,
or I'll kick you again."
"We'll see about that," replied
the King, and at once he waved
his hand toward the Sawhorse
and muttered a magical word. "Aha!" he
continued; "NOW let us see you
move, you wooden mule!"
But in spite of the magic the
Sawhorse moved; and he moved
so quickly toward the King, that
the fat little man could not
get out of his way. Thump--BANG!
came the wooden heels, right
against his round body, and the
King flew into the air and fell
upon the head of his captain,
who let him drop flat upon the
ground.
"Well, well!" said the King,
sitting up and looking surprised. "Why
didn't my magic belt work, I
wonder?"
"The creature is made of wood," replied
the captain. "Your magic will
not work on wood, you know."
"Ah, I'd forgotten that," said
the King, getting up and limping
to his throne. "Very well, let
the girl alone. She can't escape
us, anyway."
The warriors, who had been
rather confused by these incidents,
now formed their ranks again,
and the Sawhorse pranced across
the room to Dorothy and took
a position beside the Hungry
Tiger.
At that moment the doors that
led to the palace flew open and
the people of Ev and the people
of Oz were disclosed to view.
They paused, astonished, at sight
of the warriors and the angry
Nome King, seated in their midst.
"Surrender!" cried the King,
in a loud voice. "You are my
prisoners."
"Go 'long!" answered Billina,
from the Scarecrow's shoulder. "You
promised me that if I guessed
correctly my friends and I might
depart in safety. And you always
keep your promises."
"I said you might leave the
palace in safety," retorted the
King; "and so you may, but you
cannot leave my dominions. You
are my prisoners, and I will
hurl you all into my underground
dungeons, where the volcanic
fires glow and the molten lava
flows in every direction, and
the air is hotter than blue blazes."
"That will be the end of me,
all right," said the Scarecrow,
sorrowfully. "One small blaze,
blue or green, is enough to reduce
me to an ash-heap."
"Do you surrender?" demanded
the King.
Billina whispered something
in the Scarecrow's ear that made
him smile and put his hands in
his jacket pockets.
"No!" returned
Ozma, boldly answering the
King. Then she
said to her army:
"Forward, my
brave soldiers, and fight for
your Ruler and
yourselves, unto death!"
"Pardon me, Most Royal Ozma," replied
one of her generals; "but I find
that I and my brother officers
all suffer from heart disease,
and the slightest excitement
might kill us. If we fight we
may get excited. Would it not
be well for us to avoid this
grave danger?"
"Soldiers should not have heart
disease," said Ozma.
"Private soldiers are not,
I believe, afflicted that way," declared
another general, twirling his
moustache thoughtfully. "If your
Royal Highness desires, we will
order our private to attack yonder
warriors."
"Do so," replied
Ozma.
"For-ward--march!" cried all
the generals, with one voice. "For-ward--march!" yelled
the colonels. "For-ward--march!" shouted
the majors. "For-ward--march!" commanded
the captains.
And at that the private leveled
his spear and dashed furiously
upon the foe.
The captain of the Nomes was
so surprised by this sudden onslaught
that he forgot to command his
warriors to fight, so that the
ten men in the first row, who
stood in front of the private's
spear, fell over like so many
toy soldiers. The spear could
not go through their steel armor,
however, so the warriors scrambled
to their feet again, and by that
time the private had knocked
over another row of them.
Then the captain brought down
his battle-axe with such a strong
blow that the private's spear
was shattered and knocked from
his grasp, and he was helpless
to fight any longer.
The Nome King had left his
throne and pressed through his
warriors to the front ranks,
so he could see what was going
on; but as he faced Ozma and
her friends the Scarecrow, as
if aroused to action by the valor
of the private, drew one of Billina's
eggs from his right jacket pocket
and hurled it straight at the
little monarch's head.
It struck him squarely in his
left eye, where the egg smashed
and scattered, as eggs will,
and covered his face and hair
and beard with its sticky contents.
"Help, help!" screamed
the King, clawing with his
fingers
at the egg, in a struggle to
remove it.
"An egg! an egg! Run for your
lives!" shouted the captain of
the Nomes, in a voice of horror.
And how they DID run! The warriors
fairly tumbled over one another
in their efforts to escape the
fatal poison of that awful egg,
and those who could not rush
down the winding stair fell off
the balcony into the great cavern
beneath, knocking over those
who stood below them.
Even while the King was still
yelling for help his throne room
became emptied of every one of
his warriors, and before the
monarch had managed to clear
the egg away from his left eye
the Scarecrow threw the second
egg against his right eye, where
it smashed and blinded him entirely.
The King was unable to flee because
he could not see which way to
run; so he stood still and howled
and shouted and screamed in abject
fear.
While this was going on, Billina
flew over to Dorothy, and perching
herself upon the Lion's back
the hen whispered eagerly to
the girl:
"Get his belt!
Get the Nome King's jeweled
belt! It unbuckles
in the back. Quick, Dorothy--quick!"
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