Tip slipped away from the girls
and followed swiftly after the Soldier with the Green Whiskers. The
invading army entered the City more slowly, for they stopped to dig
emeralds out of the walls and paving-stones with the points of their
knitting-needles. So the Soldier and the boy reached the palace before
the news had spread that the City was conquered.
The Scarecrow and Jack Pumpkinhead
were still playing at quoits in the courtyard when the game was
interrupted by the abrupt entrance of the Royal Army of Oz, who came
flying in without his hat or gun, his clothes in sad disarray and his
long beard floating a yard behind him as he ran.
"Tally one for me," said the
Scarecrow, calmly "What's wrong, my man?" he added, addressing the
Soldier.
"Oh! your Majesty -- your Majesty!
The City is conquered!" gasped the Royal Army, who was all out of
breath.
"This is quite sudden," said the
Scarecrow. "But please go and bar all the doors and windows of the
palace, while I show this Pumpkinhead how to throw a quoit."
|
The Soldier hastened to do
this, while Tip, who had arrived at his heels, remained in the
courtyard to look at the Scarecrow with wondering eyes.
His Majesty continued to
throw the quoits as coolly as if no danger threatened his
throne, but the Pumpkinhead, having caught sight of Tip, ambled
toward the boy as fast as his wooden legs would go.
"Good afternoon, noble
parent!" he cried, delightedly." I'm glad to see you are here.
That terrible Saw-Horse ran away with me."
"I suspected it," said
Tip. "Did you get hurt? Are you cracked at all?"
"No, I arrived safely,"
answered Jack, "and his Majesty has been very kind indeed to me.
At this moment the Soldier
with the Green Whiskers returned, and the Scarecrow asked:
"By the way, who has
conquered me?"
"A regiment of girls,
gathered from the four corners of the Land of Oz," replied the
Soldier, still pale with fear.
"But where was my Standing
Army at the time?" inquired his Majesty, looking at the Soldier,
gravely.
"Your Standing Army was
running," answered the fellow, honestly; "for no man could face
the terrible weapons of the invaders."
"Well," said the
Scarecrow, after a moment's thought, "I don't mind much the loss
of my throne, for it's a tiresome job to rule over the Emerald
City. And this crown is so heavy that it makes my head ache. But
I hope the Conquerors have no intention of injuring me, just
because I happen to be the King."
"I heard them, say"
remarked Tip, with some hesitation, "that they intend to make a
rag carpet of your outside and stuff their sofa-cushions with
your inside." |
|
"Then I am really in danger," declared
his Majesty, positively, "and it will be wise for me to consider a means to
escape."
"Where can you go?" asked Jack
Pumpkinhead.
"Why, to my friend the Tin Woodman,
who rules over the Winkies, and calls himself their Emperor," was the
answer. "I am sure he will protect me."
Tip was looking out the window.
"The palace is surrounded by the
enemy," said he "It is too late to escape. They would soon tear you to
pieces."
The Scarecrow sighed.
"In an emergency," he announced, "it
is always a good thing to pause and reflect. Please excuse me while I pause
and reflect."
"But we also are in danger," said the
Pumpkinhead, anxiously." If any of these girls understand cooking, my end is
not far off!"
"Nonsense!" exclaimed the Scarecrow.
"they're too busy to cook, even if they know how!"
"But should I remain here a prisoner
for any length of time," protested Jack," I'm liable to spoil."
"Ah! then you would not be fit to
associate with," returned the Scarecrow. "The matter is more serious than I
suspected."
"You," said the Pumpkinhead, gloomily,
"are liable to live for many years. My life is necessarily short. So I must
take advantage of the few days that remain to me."
"There, there! Don't worry," answered
the Scarecrow soothingly; "if you'll keep quiet long enough for me to think,
I'll try to find some way for us all to escape."
So the others waited in patient
silence while the Scarecrow walked to a corner and stood with his face to
the wall for a good five minutes. At the end of that time he faced them with
a more cheerful expression upon his painted face.
"Where is the Saw-Horse you rode
here?" he asked the Pumpkinhead.
"Why, I said he was a jewel, and so
your man locked him up in the royal treasury," said Jack.
"It was the only place I could think
of your Majesty," added the Soldier, fearing he had made a blunder.
"It pleases me very much," said the
Scarecrow. "Has the animal been fed?"
"Oh, yes; I gave him a heaping peck of
sawdust."
"Excellent!" cried the Scarecrow.
"Bring the horse here at once."
The Soldier hastened away, and
presently they heard the clattering of the horse's wooden legs upon the
pavement as he was led into the courtyard.
His Majesty regarded the steed
critically. "He doesn't seem especially graceful!" he remarked, musingly.
"but I suppose he can run?"
"He can, indeed," said Tip, gazing
upon the Saw-Horse admiringly.
"Then, bearing us upon his back, he
must make a dash through the ranks of the rebels and carry us to my friend
the Tin Woodman," announced the Scarecrow.
"He can't carry four!" objected Tip.
"No, but he may be induced to carry
three," said his Majesty. "I shall therefore leave my Royal Army Behind.
For, from the ease with which he was conquered, I have little confidence in
his powers."
"Still, he can run," declared Tip,
laughing.
"I expected this blow" said the
Soldier, sulkily; "but I can bear it. I shall disguise myself by cutting off
my lovely green whiskers. And, after all, it is no more dangerous to face
those reckless girls than to ride this fiery, untamed wooden horse!"
"Perhaps you are right," observed his
Majesty. "But, for my part, not being a soldier, I am fond of danger. Now,
my boy, you must mount first. And please sit as close to the horse's neck as
possible."
Tip climbed quickly to his place, and
the Soldier and the Scarecrow managed to hoist the Pumpkinhead to a seat
just behind him. There remained so little space for the King that he was
liable to fall off as soon as the horse started.
"Fetch a clothesline," said the King
to his Army, "and tie us all together. Then if one falls off we will all
fall off."
And while the Soldier was gone for the
clothesline his Majesty continued, "it is well for me to be careful, for my
very existence is in danger."
"I have to be as careful as you do,"
said Jack.
"Not exactly," replied the Scarecrow.
"for if anything happened to me, that would be the end of me. But if
anything happened to you, they could use you for seed."
The Soldier now returned with a long
line and tied all three firmly together, also lashing them to the body of
the Saw-Horse; so there seemed little danger of their tumbling off.
"Now throw open the gates," commanded
the Scarecrow, "and we will make a dash to liberty or to death."
The courtyard in which they were
standing was located in the center of the great palace, which surrounded it
on all sides. But in one place a passage led to an outer gateway, which the
Soldier had barred by order of his sovereign. It was through this gateway
his Majesty proposed to escape, and the Royal Army now led the Saw-Horse
along the passage and unbarred the gate, which swung backward with a loud
crash.
"Now," said Tip to the horse, "you
must save us all. Run as fast as you can for the gate of the City, and don't
let anything stop you."
"All right!" answered the Saw-Horse,
gruffly, and dashed away so suddenly that Tip had to gasp for breath and
hold firmly to the post he had driven into the creature's neck.
Several of the girls, who stood
outside guarding the palace, were knocked over by the Saw-Horse's mad rush.
Others ran screaming out of the way, and only one or two jabbed their
knitting-needles frantically at the escaping prisoners. Tip got one small
prick in his left arm, which smarted for an hour afterward; but the needles
had no effect upon the Scarecrow or Jack Pumpkinhead, who never even
suspected they were being prodded.
As for the Saw-Horse, he made a
wonderful record upsetting a fruit cart, overturning several meek looking
men, and finally bowling over the new Guardian of the Gate -- a fussy little
fat woman appointed by General Jinjur.
Nor did the impetuous charger stop
then. Once outside the walls of the Emerald City he dashed along the road to
the West with fast and violent leaps that shook the breath out of the boy
and filled the Scarecrow with wonder.
Jack had ridden at this mad rate once
before, so he devoted every effort to holding, with both hands, his pumpkin
head upon its stick, enduring meantime the dreadful jolting with the courage
of a philosopher.
"Slow him up! Slow him up!" shouted
the Scarecrow. "My straw is all shaking down into my legs."
But Tip had no breath to speak, so the
Saw-Horse continued his wild career unchecked and with unabated speed.
Presently they came to the banks of a
wide river, and without a pause the wooden steed gave one final leap and
launched them all in mid-air.
A second later they were rolling,
splashing and bobbing about in the water, the horse struggling frantically
to find a rest for its feet and its riders being first plunged beneath the
rapid current and then floating upon the surface like corks.
Next chapter...
(
The Journey to the Tin Woodman )
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