Ozma was in her rose garden
picking a bouquet when the party
arrived, and she greeted all
her old and new friends as smilingly
and sweetly
as ever.
Dorothy's eyes were full of
tears as she kissed the lovely
Ruler of Oz, and she whispered
to her:
"Oh, Ozma,
Ozma! I'm SO sorry!"
Ozma seemed surprised.
"Sorry for what, Dorothy?" she
asked.
"For all your trouble about
the Nome King," was the reply.
Ozma laughed with genuine amusement.
"Why, that has not troubled
me a bit, dear Princess," she
replied. Then, looking around
at the sad faces of her friends,
she added: "Have you all been
worrying about this tunnel?"
"We have!" they
exclaimed in a chorus.
"Well, perhaps it is more serious
than I imagined," admitted the
fair Ruler; "but I haven't given
the matter much thought. After
dinner we will all meet together
and talk it over."
So they went to their rooms
and prepared for dinner, and
Dorothy dressed herself in her
prettiest gown and put on her
coronet, for she thought that
this might be the last time she
would ever appear as a Princess
of Oz.
The Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman
and Jack Pumpkinhead all sat
at the dinner table, although
none of them was made so he could
eat. Usually they served to enliven
the meal with their merry talk,
but to-night all seemed strangely
silent and uneasy.
As soon as the dinner was finished
Ozma led the company to her own
private room in which hung the
Magic Picture. When they had
seated themselves the Scarecrow
was the first to speak.
"Is the Nome King's tunnel
finished, Ozma?" he asked.
"It was completed to-day," she
replied. "They have built it
right under my palace grounds,
and it ends in front of the Forbidden
Fountain. Nothing but a crust
of earth remains to separate
our enemies from us, and when
they march here, they will easily
break through this crust and
rush upon us."
"Who will assist the Nome King?" inquired
the Scarecrow.
"The Whimsies, the Growleywogs
and the Phanfasms," she replied. "I
watched to-day in my Magic Picture
the messengers whom the Nome
King sent to all these people
to summon them to assemble in
his great caverns."
"Let us see what they are doing
now," suggested the Tin Woodman.
So Ozma wished to see the Nome
King's cavern, and at once the
landscape faded from the Magic
Picture and was replaced by the
scene then being enacted in the
jeweled cavern of King Roquat.
A wild and startling scene
it was which the Oz people beheld.
Before the Nome King stood
the Chief of the Whimsies and
the Grand Gallipoot of the Growleywogs,
surrounded by their most skillful
generals. Very fierce and powerful
they looked, so that even the
Nome King and General Guph, who
stood beside his master, seemed
a bit fearful in the presence
of their allies.
Now a still more formidable
creature entered the cavern.
It was the First and Foremost
of the Phanfasms and he proudly
sat down in King Roquat's own
throne and demanded the right
to lead his forces through the
tunnel in advance of all the
others. The First and Foremost
now appeared to all eyes in his
hairy skin and the bear's head.
What his real form was even Roquat
did not know.
Through the arches leading
into the vast series of caverns
that lay beyond the throne room
of King Roquat could be seen
ranks upon ranks of the invaders--thousands
of Phanfasms, Growleywogs and
Whimsies standing in serried
lines, while behind them were
massed the thousands upon thousands
of General Guph's own army of
Nomes.
"Listen!" whispered Ozma. "I
think we can hear what they are
saying."
So they kept still and listened.
"Is all ready?" demanded
the First and Foremost, haughtily.
"The tunnel is finally completed," replied
General Guph.
"How long will it take us to
march to the Emerald City?" asked
the Grand Gallipoot of the Growleywogs.
"If we start at midnight," replied
the Nome King, "we shall arrive
at the Emerald City by daybreak.
Then, while all the Oz people
are sleeping, we will capture
them and make them our slaves.
After that we will destroy the
city itself and march through
the Land of Oz, burning and devastating
as we go."
"Good!" cried the First and
Foremost. "When we get through
with Oz it will be a desert wilderness.
Ozma shall be my slave."
"She shall be MY slave!" shouted
the Grand Gallipoot, angrily.
"We'll decide that by and by," said
King Roquat hastily. "Don't let
us quarrel now, friends. First
let us conquer Oz, and then we
will divide the spoils of war
in a satisfactory manner."
The First and Foremost smiled
wickedly; but he only said:
"I and my Phanfasms
go first, for nothing on earth
can oppose
our power."
They all agreed to that, knowing
the Phanfasms to be the mightiest
of the combined forces. King
Roquat now invited them to attend
a banquet he had prepared, where
they might occupy themselves
in eating and drinking until
midnight arrived.
As they had now seen and heard
all of the plot against them
that they cared to, Ozma allowed
her Magic Picture to fade away.
Then she turned to her friends
and said:
"Our enemies
will be here sooner than I
expected. What do you
advise me to do?"
"It is now too late to assemble
our people," said the Tin Woodman,
despondently. "If you had allowed
me to arm and drill my Winkies,
we might have put up a good fight
and destroyed many of our enemies
before we were conquered."
"The Munchkins are good fighters,
too," said Omby Amby; "and so
are the Gillikins."
"But I do not wish to fight," declared
Ozma, firmly. "No one has the
right to destroy any living creatures,
however evil they may be, or
to hurt them or make them unhappy.
I will not fight, even to save
my kingdom." "The Nome King is
not so particular," remarked
the Scarecrow. "He intends to
destroy us all and ruin our beautiful
country."
"Because the Nome King intends
to do evil is no excuse for my
doing the same," replied Ozma.
"Self-preservation is the first
law of nature," quoted the Shaggy
Man.
"True," she said, readily. "I
would like to discover a plan
to save ourselves without fighting."
That seemed a hopeless task
to them, but realizing that Ozma
was determined not to fight,
they tried to think of some means
that might promise escape.
"Couldn't we bribe our enemies,
by giving them a lot of emeralds
and gold?" asked Jack Pumpkinhead.
"No, because they believe they
are able to take everything we
have," replied the Ruler.
"I have thought of something," said
Dorothy.
"What is it, dear?" asked
Ozma.
"Let us use
the Magic Belt to wish all
of us in Kansas.
We will put some emeralds in
our pockets, and can sell them
in Topeka for enough to pay off
the mortgage on Uncle Henry's
farm. Then we can all live together
and be happy."
"A clever idea!" exclaimed
the Scarecrow.
"Kansas is a very good country.
I've been there," said the Shaggy
Man.
"That seems to me an excellent
plan," approved the Tin Woodman.
"No!" said Ozma, decidedly. "Never
will I desert my people and leave
them to so cruel a fate. I will
use the Magic Belt to send the
rest of you to Kansas, if you
wish, but if my beloved country
must be destroyed and my people
enslaved I will remain and share
their fate."
"Quite right," asserted the
Scarecrow, sighing. "I will remain
with you."
"And so will I," declared the
Tin Woodman and the Shaggy Man
and Jack Pumpkinhead, in turn.
Tiktok, the machine man, also
said he intended to stand by
Ozma. "For," said he, "I should
be of no use at all in Kan-sas."
"For my part," announced Dorothy,
gravely, "if the Ruler of Oz
must not desert her people, a
Princess of Oz has no right to
run away, either. I'm willing
to become a slave with the rest
of you; so all we can do with
the Magic Belt is to use it to
send Uncle Henry and Aunt Em
back to Kansas."
"I've been a slave all my life," Aunt
Em replied, with considerable
cheerfulness, "and so has Henry.
I guess we won't go back to Kansas,
anyway. I'd rather take my chances
with the rest of you."
Ozma smiled upon them all gratefully.
"There is no need to despair
just yet," she said. "I'll get
up early to-morrow morning and
be at the Forbidden Fountain
when the fierce warriors break
through the crust of the earth.
I will speak to them pleasantly
and perhaps they won't be so
very bad, after all."
"Why do they call it the Forbidden
Fountain?" asked Dorothy, thoughtfully.
"Don't you know, dear?" returned
Ozma, surprised.
"No," said Dorothy. "Of
course I've seen the fountain
in the
palace grounds, ever since I
first came to Oz; and I've read
the sign which says: 'All Persons
are Forbidden to Drink at this
Fountain.' But I never knew WHY
they were forbidden. The water
seems clear and sparkling and
it bubbles up in a golden basin
all the time."
"That water," declared Ozma,
gravely, "is the most dangerous
thing in all the Land of Oz.
It is the Water of Oblivion."
"What does that mean?" asked
Dorothy.
"Whoever drinks at the Forbidden
Fountain at once forgets everything
he has ever known," Ozma asserted.
"It wouldn't be a bad way to
forget our troubles," suggested
Uncle Henry.
"That is true; but you would
forget everything else, and become
as ignorant as a baby," returned
Ozma.
"Does it make one crazy?" asked
Dorothy.
"No; it only makes one forget," replied
the girl Ruler. "It is said that
once--long, long ago--a wicked
King ruled Oz, and made himself
and all his people very miserable
and unhappy. So Glinda, the Good
Sorceress, placed this fountain
here, and the King drank of its
water and forgot all his wickedness.
His mind became innocent and
vacant, and when he learned the
things of life again they were
all good things. But the people
remembered how wicked their King
had been, and were still afraid
of him. Therefore, he made them
all drink of the Water of Oblivion
and forget everything they had
known, so that they became as
simple and innocent as their
King. After that, they all grew
wise together, and their wisdom
was good, so that peace and happiness
reigned in the land. But for
fear some one might drink of
the water again, and in an instant
forget all he had learned, the
King put that sign upon the fountain,
where it has remained for many
centuries up to this very day."
They had all listened intently
to Ozma's story, and when she
finished speaking there was a
long period of silence while
all thought upon the curious
magical power of the Water of
Oblivion.
Finally the Scarecrow's painted
face took on a broad smile that
stretched the cloth as far as
it would go.
"How thankful I am," he said, "that
I have such an excellent assortment
of brains!"
"I gave you the best brains
I ever mixed," declared the Wizard,
with an air of pride.
"You did, indeed!" agreed the
Scarecrow, "and they work so
splendidly that they have found
a way to save Oz--to save us
all!"
"I'm glad to hear that," said
the Wizard. "We never needed
saving more than we do just now."
"Do you mean to say you can
save us from those awful Phanfasms,
and Growleywogs and Whimsies?" asked
Dorothy eagerly.
"I'm sure of it, my dear," asserted
the Scarecrow, still smiling
genially.
"Tell us how!" cried
the Tin Woodman.
"Not now," said the Scarecrow. "You
may all go to bed, and I advise
you to forget your worries just
as completely as if you had drunk
of the Water of Oblivion in the
Forbidden Fountain. I'm going
to stay here and tell my plan
to Ozma alone, but if you will
all be at the Forbidden Fountain
at daybreak, you'll see how easily
we will save the kingdom when
our enemies break through the
crust of earth and come from
the tunnel."
So they went away and let the
Scarecrow and Ozma alone; but
Dorothy could not sleep a wink
all night.
"He is only a Scarecrow," she
said to herself, "and I'm not
sure that his mixed brains are
as clever as he thinks they are."
But she knew that if the Scarecrow's
plan failed they were all lost;
so she tried to have faith in
him.
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