L. Frank Baum_Oz 14 (14 page)

"Do you claim this is your natural form?" asked Ervic of the Yookoohoo.

"Yes," she replied. "This is the only form I am really entitled to
wear. But I seldom assume it because there is no one here to admire or
appreciate it and I get tired admiring it myself."

"I see now why you are named Reera the Red," remarked Ervic.

"It is on account of my red hair," she explained smiling. "I do not
care for red hair myself, which is one reason I usually wear other
forms."

"It is beautiful," asserted the young man; and then remembering the
other women present he added: "But, of course, all women should not
have red hair, because that would make it too common. Gold and silver
and brown hair are equally handsome."

The smiles that he saw interchanged between the four filled the poor
Skeezer with embarrassment, so he fell silent and attended to eating
his supper, leaving the others to do the talking. The three Adepts
frankly told Reera who they were, how they became fishes and how they
had planned secretly to induce the Yookoohoo to transform them. They
admitted that they had feared, had they asked her to help, that she
would have refused them.

"You were quite right," returned the Yookoohoo. "I make it my rule
never to perform magic to assist others, for if I did there would
always be crowd at my cottage demanding help and I hate crowds and want
to be left alone."

"However, now that you are restored to your proper shapes, I do not
regret my action and I hope you will be of use in saving the Skeezer
people by raising their island to the surface of the lake, where it
really belongs. But you must promise me that after you go away you will
never come here again, nor tell anyone what I have done for you."

The three Adepts and Ervic thanked the Yookoohoo warmly. They promised
to remember her wish that they should not come to her cottage again and
so, with a good-bye, took their departure.

Glinda the Good, having decided to try her sorcery upon the abandoned
submarine, so that it would obey her commands, asked all of her party,
including the Skeezers, to withdraw from the shore of the take to the
line of palm trees. She kept with her only the little Wizard of Oz, who
was her pupil and knew how to assist her in her magic rites. When they
two were alone beside the stranded boat, Glinda said to the Wizard:

"I shall first try my magic recipe No. 1163, which is intended to make
inanimate objects move at my command. Have you a skeropythrope with
you?"

"Yes, I always carry one in my bag," replied the Wizard. He opened his
black bag of magic tools and took out a brightly polished
skeropythrope, which he handed to the Sorceress. Glinda had also
brought a small wicker bag, containing various requirements of sorcery,
and from this she took a parcel of powder and a vial of liquid. She
poured the liquid into the skeropythrope and added the powder. At once
the skeropythrope began to sputter and emit sparks of a violet color,
which spread in all directions. The Sorceress instantly stepped into
the middle of the boat and held the instrument so that the sparks fell
all around her and covered every bit of the blackened steel boat. At
the same time Glinda crooned a weird incantation in the language of
sorcery, her voice sounding low and musical.

After a little the violet sparks ceased, and those that had fallen upon
the boat had disappeared and left no mark upon its surface. The
ceremony was ended and Glinda returned the skeropythrope to the Wizard,
who put it away in his black bag.

"That ought to do the business all right," he said confidently.

"Let us make a trial and see," she replied.

So they both entered the boat and seated themselves.

Speaking in a tone of command the Sorceress said to the boat: "Carry us
across the lake, to the farther shore."

At once the boat backed off the sandy beach, turned its prow and moved
swiftly over the water.

"Very good—very good indeed!" cried the Wizard, when the boat slowed
up at the shore opposite from that whence they had departed. "Even
Coo-ee-oh, with all her witchcraft, could do no better."

The Sorceress now said to the boat:

"Close up, submerge and carry us to the basement door of the sunken
island—the door from which you emerged at the command of Queen
Coo-ee-oh."

The boat obeyed. As it sank into the water the top sections rose from
the sides and joined together over the heads of Glinda and the Wizard,
who were thus enclosed in a water-proof chamber. There were four glass
windows in this covering, one on each side and one on either end, so
that the passengers could see exactly where they were going. Moving
under water more slowly than on the surface, the submarine gradually
approached the island and halted with its bow pressed against the huge
marble door in the basement under the Dome. This door was tightly
closed and it was evident to both Glinda and the Wizard that it would
not open to admit the underwater boat unless a magic word was spoken by
them or someone from within the basement of the island. But what was
this magic word? Neither of them knew.

"I'm afraid," said the Wizard regretfully, "that we can't get in, after
all. Unless your sorcery can discover the word to open the marble door."

"That is probably some word only known to Coo-ce-oh," replied the
Sorceress. "I may be able to discover what it is, but that will require
time. Let us go back again to our companions."

"It seems a shame, after we have made the boat obey us, to be balked by
just a marble door," grumbled the Wizard.

At Glinda's command the boat rose until it was on a level with the
glass dome that covered the Skeezer village, when the Sorceress made it
slowly circle all around the Great Dome.

Many faces were pressed against the glass from the inside, eagerly
watching the submarine, and in one place were Dorothy and Ozma, who
quickly recognized Glinda and the Wizard through the glass windows of
the boat. Glinda saw them, too, and held the boat close to the Dome
while the friends exchanged greetings in pantomime. Their voices,
unfortunately, could not be heard through the Dome and the water and
the side of the boat. The Wizard tried to make the girls understand,
through signs, that he and Glinda had come to their rescue, and Ozma
and Dorothy understood this from the very fact that the Sorceress and
the Wizard had appeared. The two girl prisoners were smiling and in
safety, and knowing this Glinda felt she could take all the time
necessary in order to effect their final rescue.

As nothing more could be done just then, Glinda ordered the boat to
return to shore and it obeyed readily. First it ascended to the surface
of the water, then the roof parted and fell into the slots at the side
of the boat, and then the magic craft quickly made the shore and
beached itself on the sands at the very spot from which it had departed
at Glinda's command. All the Oz people and the Skeezers at once ran to
the boat to ask if they had reached the island, and whether they had
seen Ozma and Dorothy. The Wizard told them of the obstacle they had
met in the way of a marble door, and how Glinda would now undertake to
find a magic way to conquer the door.

Realizing that it would require several days to succeed in reaching the
island raising it and liberating their friends and the Skeezer people,
Glinda now prepared a camp half way between the lake shore and the palm
trees.

The Wizard's wizardry made a number of tents appear and the sorcery of
the Sorceress furnished these tents all complete, with beds, chairs,
tables, flags, lamps and even books with which to pass idle hours. All
the tents had the Royal Banner of Oz flying from the centerpoles and
one big tent, not now occupied, had Ozma's own banner moving in the
breeze.

Betsy and Trot had a tent to themselves, and Button Bright and Ojo had
another. The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman paired together in one tent
and so did Jack Pumpkinhead and the Shaggy Man, Cap'n Bill and Uncle
Henry, Tik-Tok and Professor Wogglebug. Glinda had the most splendid
tent of all, except that reserved for Ozma, while the Wizard had a
little one of his own. Whenever it was meal time, tables loaded with
food magically appeared in the tents of those who were in the habit of
eating, and these complete arrangements made the rescue party just
comfortable as they would have been in their own homes.

Far into the night Glinda sat in her tent studying a roll of mystic
scrolls in search of a word that would open the basement door of the
island and admit her to the Great Dome. She also made many magical
experiments, hoping to discover something that would aid her. Yet the
morning found the powerful Sorceress still unsuccessful.

Glinda's art could have opened any ordinary door, you may be sure, but
you must realize that this marble door of the island had been commanded
not to open save in obedience to one magic word, and therefore all
other magic words could have no effect upon it. The magic word that
guarded the door had probably been invented by Coo-ee-oh, who had now
forgotten it. The only way, then, to gain entrance to the sunken island
was to break the charm that held the door fast shut. If this could be
done no magic would be required to open it.

The next day the Sorceress and the Wizard again entered the boat and
made it submerge and go to the marble door, which they tried in various
ways to open, but without success.

"We shall have to abandon this attempt, I think," said Glinda. "The
easiest way to raise the island would be for us to gain admittance to
the Dome and then descend to the basement and see in what manner
Coo-ee-oh made the entire island sink or rise at her command. It
naturally occurred to me that the easiest way to gain admittance would
be by having the boat take us into the basement through the marble door
from which Coo-ee-oh launched it. But there must be other ways to get
inside the Dome and join Ozma and Dorothy, and such ways we must find
by study and the proper use of our powers of magic."

"It won't be easy," declared the Wizard, "for we must not forget that
Ozma herself understands considerable magic, and has doubtless tried to
raise the island or find other means of escape from it and failed."

"That is true," returned Glinda, "but Ozma's magic is fairy magic,
while you are a Wizard and I am a Sorceress. In this way the three of
us have a great variety of magic to work with, and if we should all
fail it will be because the island is raised and lowered by a magic
power none of us is acquainted with. My idea therefore is to seek—by
such magic as we possess—to accomplish our object in another way."

They made the circle of the Dome again in their boat, and once more saw
Ozma and Dorothy through their windows and exchanged signals with the
two imprisoned girls.

Ozma realized that her friends were doing all in their power to rescue
her and smiled an encouragement to their efforts. Dorothy seemed a
little anxious but was trying to be as brave as her companion.

After the boat had returned to the camp and Glinda was seated in her
tent, working out various ways by which Ozma and Dorothy could be
rescued, the Wizard stood on the shore dreamily eying the outlines of
the Great Dome which showed beneath the clear water, when he raised his
eyes and saw a group of strange people approaching from around the
lake. Three were young women of stately presence, very beautifully
dressed, who moved with remarkable grace. They were followed at a
little distance by a good-looking young Skeezer.

The Wizard saw at a glance that these people might be very important,
so he advanced to meet them. The three maidens received him graciously
and the one with the golden hair said:

"I believe you are the famous Wizard of Oz, of whom I have often heard.
We are seeking Glinda, the Sorceress, and perhaps you can lead us to
her."

"I can, and will, right gladly," answered the Wizard. "Follow me,
please."

The little Wizard was puzzled as to the identity of the three lovely
visitors but he gave no sign that might embarrass them.

He understood they did not wish to be questioned, and so he made no
remarks as he led the way to Glinda's tent.

With a courtly bow the Wizard ushered the three visitors into the
gracious presence of Glinda, the Good.

The Sorceress looked up from her work as the three maidens entered, and
something in their appearance and manner led her to rise and bow to
them in her most dignified manner. The three knelt an instant before
the great Sorceress and then stood upright and waited for her to speak.

"Whoever you may be," said Glinda, "I bid you welcome."

"My name is Audah," said one.

"My name is Aurah," said another.

"My name is Aujah," said the third.

Glinda had never heard these names before, but looking closely at the
three she asked:

"Are you witches or workers in magic?"

"Some of the secret arts we have gleaned from Nature," replied the
brownhaired maiden modestly, "but we do not place our skill beside that
of the Great Sorceress, Glinda the Good."

"I suppose you are aware it is unlawful to practice magic in the Land
of Oz, without the permission of our Ruler, Princess Ozma?"

"No, we were not aware of that," was the reply. "We have heard of
Ozma, who is the appointed Ruler of all this great fairyland, but her
laws have not reached us, as yet."

Glinda studied the strange maidens thoughtfully; then she said to them:

"Princess Ozma is even now imprisoned in the Skeezer village, for the
whole island with its Great Dome, was sunk to the bottom of the lake by
the witchcraft of Coo-ee-oh, whom the Flathead Su-dic transformed into
a silly swan. I am seeking some way to overcome Coo-ee-oh's magic and
raise the isle to the surface again. Can you help me do this?"