Chapter 17
After Billina had entered the palace Dorothy and Evring sat down toawait the success or failure of her mission, and the Nome Kingoccupied his throne and smoked his long pipe for a while in a cheerfuland contented mood.
Then the bell above the throne, which sounded whenever an enchantmentwas broken, began to ring, and the King gave a start of annoyance andexclaimed, "Rocketty-ricketts!"
When the bell rang a second time the King shouted angrily, "Smudge andblazes!" 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 wasnow so violently enraged that he could not utter a word, but hoppedout of his throne and all around the room in a mad frenzy, so that hereminded 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 moreornament into a living person. Dorothy was also amazed at Billina'ssuccess, for she could not imagine how the yellow hen was able toguess correctly from all the bewildering number of articles clusteredin the rooms of the palace. But after she had counted ten, and thebell continued to ring, she knew that not only the royal family of Ev,but Ozma and her followers also, were being restored to their naturalforms, and she was so delighted that the antics of the angry King onlymade her laugh merrily.
Perhaps the little monarch could not be more furious than he wasbefore, but the girl's laughter nearly drove him frantic, and heroared at her like a savage beast. Then, as he found that all hisenchantments were likely to be dispelled and his victims every one setfree, he suddenly ran to the little door that opened upon the balconyand gave the shrill whistle that summoned his warriors.
At once the army filed out of the gold and silver doors in greatnumbers, and marched up a winding stairs and into the throne room, ledby a stern featured Nome who was their captain. When they had nearlyfilled the throne room they formed ranks in the big underground cavernbelow, and then stood still until they were told what to do next.
Dorothy had pressed back to one side of the cavern when the warriorsentered, and now she stood holding little Prince Evring's hand whilethe great Lion crouched upon one side and the enormous Tiger crouchedon the other side.
"Seize that girl!" shouted the King to his captain, and a group ofwarriors sprang forward to obey. But both the Lion and Tiger snarledso fiercely and bared their strong, sharp teeth so threateningly, thatthe men drew back in alarm.
"Don't mind them!" cried the Nome King; "they cannot leap beyond theplaces 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 thatthey can't open their jaws."
He stepped out of the throne to do this, but just then the Sawhorseran up behind him and gave the fat monarch a powerful kick with bothhis wooden hind legs.
"Ow! Murder! Treason!" yelled the King, who had been hurled againstseveral of his warriors and was considerably bruised. "Who did that?"
"I did," growled the Sawhorse, viciously. "You let Dorothy alone, orI'll kick you again."
"We'll see about that," replied the King, and at once he waved hishand toward the Sawhorse and muttered a magical word. "Aha!" hecontinued; "NOW let us see you move, you wooden mule!"
But in spite of the magic the Sawhorse moved; and he moved so quicklytoward 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. "Whydidn't my magic belt work, I wonder?"
"The creature is made of wood," replied the captain. "Your magic willnot work on wood, you know."
"Ah, I'd forgotten that," said the King, getting up and limping to histhrone. "Very well, let the girl alone. She can't escape us, anyway."
The warriors, who had been rather confused by these incidents, nowformed their ranks again, and the Sawhorse pranced across the room toDorothy and took a position beside the Hungry Tiger.
At that moment the doors that led to the palace flew open and thepeople of Ev and the people of Oz were disclosed to view. Theypaused, 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. "Youpromised me that if I guessed correctly my friends and I might departin safety. And you always keep your promises."
"I said you might leave the palace in safety," retorted the King; "andso you may, but you cannot leave my dominions. You are my prisoners,and I will hurl you all into my underground dungeons, where thevolcanic fires glow and the molten lava flows in every direction, andthe 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 meto an ash-heap."
"Do you surrender?" demanded the King.
Billina whispered something in the Scarecrow's ear that made him smileand 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 findthat I and my brother officers all suffer from heart disease, and theslightest 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," declaredanother general, twirling his moustache thoughtfully. "If your RoyalHighness 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!" shoutedthe majors. "For-ward--march!" commanded the captains.
And at that the private leveled his spear and dashed furiously uponthe foe.
The captain of the Nomes was so surprised by this sudden onslaughtthat he forgot to command his warriors to fight, so that the ten menin the first row, who stood in front of the private's spear, fell overlike so many toy soldiers. The spear could not go through their steelarmor, however, so the warriors scrambled to their feet again, and bythat time the private had knocked over another row of them.
Then the captain brought down his battle-axe with such a strong blowthat the private's spear was shattered and knocked from his grasp, andhe was helpless to fight any longer.
The Nome King had left his throne and pressed through his warriors tothe front ranks, so he could see what was going on; but as he facedOzma and her friends the Scarecrow, as if aroused to action by thevalor of the private, drew one of Billina's eggs from his right jacketpocket and hurled it straight at the little monarch's head.
It struck him squarely in his left eye, where the egg smashed andscattered, as eggs will, and covered his face and hair and beard withits 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 theNomes, in a voice of horror.
And how they DID run! The warriors fairly tumbled over one another intheir efforts to escape the fatal poison of that awful egg, and thosewho could not rush down the winding stair fell off the balcony intothe great cavern beneath, knocking over those who stood below them.
Even while the King was still yelling for help his throne room becameemptied of every one of his warriors, and before the monarch hadmanaged to clear the egg away from his left eye the Scarecrow threwthe second egg against his right eye, where it smashed and blinded himentirely. The King was unable to flee because he could not see whichway to run; so he stood still and howled and shouted and screamed inabject fear.
While this was going on, Billina flew over to Dorothy, and perchingherself 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 theback. Quick, Dorothy--quick!"