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 girclass="underline"
“Get his belt! Get the Nome King’s jeweled belt! It unbuckles in the back. Quick, Dorothy – quick!”
18. The Fate of the Tin Woodman
Dorothy obeyed. She ran at once behind the Nome King, who was still trying to free his eyes from the egg, and in a twinkling she had unbuckled his splendid jeweled belt and carried it away with her to her place beside the Tiger and Lion, where, because she did not know what else to do with it, she fastened it around her own slim waist.
Just then the Chief Steward rushed in with a sponge and a bowl of water, and began mopping away the broken eggs from his master’s face. In a few minutes, and while all the party stood looking on, the King regained the use of his eyes, and the first thing he did was to glare wickedly upon the Scarecrow and exclaim:
“I’ll make you suffer for this, you hay-stuffed dummy! Don’t you know eggs are poison to Nomes?”
“Really,” said the Scarecrow, “they DON’T seem to agree with you, although I wonder why.”
“They were strictly fresh and above suspicion,” said Billina. “You ought to be glad to get them.”
“I’ll transform you all into scorpions!” cried the King, angrily, and began waving his arms and muttering magic words.
But none of the people became scorpions, so the King stopped and looked at them in surprise.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“Why, you are not wearing your magic belt,” replied the Chief Steward, after looking the King over carefully. “Where is it? What have you done with it?”
The Nome King clapped his hand to his waist, and his rock colored face turned white as chalk.
“It’s gone,” he cried, helplessly. “It’s gone, and I am ruined!”
Dorothy now stepped forward and said:
“Royal Ozma, and you, Queen of Ev, I welcome you and your people back to the land of the living. Billina has saved you from your troubles, and now we will leave this drea’ful place, and return to Ev as soon as poss’ble.”
While the child spoke they could all see that she wore the magic belt, and a great cheer went up from all her friends, which was led by the voices of the Scarecrow and the private. But the Nome King did not join them. He crept back onto his throne like a whipped dog, and lay there bitterly bemoaning his defeat.
“But we have not yet found my faithful follower, the Tin Woodman,” said Ozma to Dorothy, “and without him I do not wish to go away.”
“Nor I,” replied Dorothy, quickly. “Wasn’t he in the palace?”
“He must be there,” said Billina; “but I had no clue to guide me in guessing the Tin Woodman, so I must have missed him.”
“We will go back into the rooms,” said Dorothy. “This magic belt, I am sure, will help us to find our dear old friend.”
So she re-entered the palace, the doors of which still stood open, and everyone followed her except the Nome King, the Queen of Ev and Prince Evring. The mother had taken the little Prince in her lap and was fondling and kissing him lovingly, for he was her youngest born.
But the others went with Dorothy, and when she came to the middle of the first room the girl waved her hand, as she had seen the King do, and commanded the Tin Woodman, whatever form he might then have, to resume his proper shape. No result followed this attempt, so Dorothy went into another room and repeated it, and so through all the rooms of the palace. Yet the Tin Woodman did not appear to them, nor could they imagine which among the thousands of ornaments was their transformed friend.
Sadly they returned to the throne room, where the King, seeing that they had met with failure, jeered at Dorothy, saying:
“You do not know how to use my belt, so it is of no use to you. Give it back to me and I will let you go free – you and all the people who came with you. As for the royal family of Ev, they are my slaves, and shall remain here.”
“I shall keep the belt,” said Dorothy.
“But how can you escape, without my consent?” asked the King.
“Easily enough,” answered the girl. “All we need to do is to walk out the way that we came in.”
“Oh, that’s all, is it?” sneered the King. “Well, where is the passage through which you entered this room?”
They all looked around, but could not discover the place, for it had long since been closed. Dorothy, however, would not be dismayed. She waved her hand toward the seemingly solid wall of the cavern and said:
“I command the passage to open!”
Instantly the order was obeyed; the opening appeared and the passage lay plainly before them.
The King was amazed, and all the others overjoyed.
“Why, then, if the belt obeys you, were we unable to discover the Tin Woodman?” asked Ozma.
“I can’t imagine,” said Dorothy.
“See here, girl,” proposed the King, eagerly; “give me the belt, and I will tell you what shape the Tin Woodman was changed into, and then you can easily find him.”
Dorothy hesitated, but Billina cried out:
“Don’t you do it! If the Nome King gets the belt again he will make every one of us prisoners, for we will be in his power. Only by keeping the belt, Dorothy, will you ever be able to leave this place in safety.”
“I think that is true,” said the Scarecrow. “But I have another idea, due to my excellent brains. Let Dorothy transform the King into a goose-egg unless he agrees to go into the palace and bring out to us the ornament which is our friend Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman.”
“A goose-egg!” echoed the horrified King. “How dreadful!”
“Well, a goose-egg you will be unless you go and fetch us the ornament we want,” declared Billina, with a joyful chuckle.
“You can see for yourself that Dorothy is able to use the magic belt all right,” added the Scarecrow.
The Nome King thought it over and finally consented, for he did not want to be a goose-egg. So he went into the palace to get the ornament which was the transformation of the Tin Woodman, and they all awaited his return with considerable impatience, for they were anxious to leave this underground cavern and see the sunshine once more. But when the Nome King came back he brought nothing with him except a puzzled and anxious expression upon his face.