L. Frank Baum_Oz 14 (15 page)

The maidens exchanged glances, and the white-haired one replied:

"We do not know; but we will try to assist you."

"It seems," continued Glinda musingly, "that Coo-ee-oh derived most of
her witchcraft from three Adepts at Magic, who at one time ruled the
Flatheads. While the Adepts were being entertained by Coo-ee-oh at a
banquet in her palace, she cruelly betrayed them and after transforming
them into fishes cast them into the lake.

"If I could find these three fishes and return them to their natural
shapes—they might know what magic Coo-ee-oh used to sink the island. I
was about to go to the shore and call these fishes to me when you
arrived. So, if you will join me, we will try to find them."

The maidens exchanged smiles now, and the golden-haired one, Audah,
said to Glinda:

"It will not be necessary to go to the lake. We are the three fishes."

"Indeed!" cried Glinda. "Then you are the three Adepts at Magic,
restored to your proper forms?"

"We are the three Adepts," admitted Aujah.

"Then," said Glinda, "my task is half accomplished. But who destroyed
the transformation that made you fishes?"

"We have promised not to tell," answered Aurah; "but this young Skeezer
was largely responsible for our release; he is brave and clever, and we
owe him our gratitude."

Glinda looked at Ervic, who stood modestly behind the Adepts, hat in
hand. "He shall be properly rewarded," she declared, "for in helping
you he has helped us all, and perhaps saved his people from being
imprisoned forever in the sunken isle."

The Sorceress now asked her guests to seat themselves and a long talk
followed, in which the Wizard of Oz shared.

"We are quite certain," said Aurah, "that if we could get inside the
Dome we could discover Coo-ee-oh's secrets, for in all her work, after
we became fishes, she used the formulas and incantations and arts that
she stole from us. She may have added to these things, but they were
the foundation of all her work."

"What means do you suggest for our getting into the Dome?" inquired
Glinda.

The three Adepts hesitated to reply, for they had not yet considered
what could be done to reach the inside of the Great Dome. While they
were in deep thought, and Glinda and the Wizard were quietly awaiting
their suggestions, into the tent rushed Trot and Betsy, dragging
between them the Patchwork Girl.

"Oh, Glinda," cried Trot, "Scraps has thought of a way to rescue Ozma
and Dorothy and all of the Skeezers."

The three Adepts could not avoid laughing merrily, for not only were
they amused by the queer form of the Patchwork Girl, but Trot's
enthusiastic speech struck them as really funny. If the Great Sorceress
and the famous Wizard and the three talented Adepts at Magic were
unable as yet to solve the important problem of the sunken isle, there
was little chance for a patched girl stuffed with cotton to succeed.

But Glinda, smiling indulgently at the earnest faces turned toward her,
patted the children's heads and said:

"Scraps is very clever. Tell us what she has thought of, my dear."

"Well," said Trot, "Scraps says that if you could dry up all the water
in the lake the island would be on dry land, an' everyone could come
and go whenever they liked."

Glinda smiled again, but the Wizard said to the girls:

"If we should dry up the lake, what would become of all the beautiful
fishes that now live in the water?"

"Dear me! That's so," admitted Betsy, crestfallen; "we never thought of
that, did we Trot?"

"Couldn't you transform 'em into polliwogs?" asked Scraps, turning a
somersault and then standing on one leg. "You could give them a little,
teeny pond to swim in, and they'd be just as happy as they are as
fishes."

"No indeed!" replied the Wizard, severely. "It is wicked to transform
any living creatures without their consent, and the lake is the home of
the fishes and belongs to them."

"All right," said Scraps, making a face at him; "I don't care."

"It's too bad," sighed Trot, "for I thought we'd struck a splendid
idea."

"So you did," declared Glinda, her face now grave and thoughtful.
"There is something in the Patchwork Girl's idea that may be of real
value to us."

"I think so, too," agreed the golden-haired Adept. "The top of the
Great Dome is only a few feet below the surface of the water. If we
could reduce the level of the lake until the Dome sticks a little above
the water, we could remove some of the glass and let ourselves down
into the village by means of ropes."

"And there would be plenty of water left for the fishes to swim in,"
added the white-haired maiden.

"If we succeed in raising the island we could fill up the lake again,"
suggested the brown-haired Adept.

"I believe," said the Wizard, rubbing his hands together in delight,
"that the Patchwork Girl has shown us the way to success."

The girls were looking curiously at the three beautiful Adepts,
wondering who they were, so Glinda introduced them to Trot and Betsy
and Scraps, and then sent the children away while she considered how to
carry the new idea into effect.

Not much could be done that night, so the Wizard prepared another tent
for the Adepts, and in the evening Glinda held a reception and invited
all her followers to meet the new arrivals. The Adepts were greatly
astonished at the extraordinary personages presented to them, and
marveled that Jack Pumpkinhead and the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman
and Tik-Tok could really live and think and talk just like other
people. They were especially pleased with the lively Patchwork Girl and
loved to watch her antics.

It was quite a pleasant party, for Glinda served some dainty
refreshments to those who could eat, and the Scarecrow recited some
poems, and the Cowardly Lion sang a song in his deep bass voice. The
only thing that marred their joy was the thought that their beloved
Ozma and dear little Dorothy were yet confined in the Great Dome of the
Sunken island.

As soon as they had breakfasted the next morning, Glinda and the Wizard
and the three Adepts went down to the shore of the lake and formed a
line with their faces toward the submerged island. All the others came
to watch them, but stood at a respectful distance in the background.

At the right of the Sorceress stood Audah and Aurah, while at the left
stood the Wizard and Aujah. Together they stretched their arms over the
water's edge and in unison the five chanted a rhythmic incantation.

This chant they repeated again and again, swaying their arms gently
from side to side, and in a few minutes the watchers behind them
noticed that the lake had begun to recede from the shore. Before long
the highest point of the dome appeared above the water. Gradually the
water fell, making the dome appear to rise. When it was three or four
feet above the surface Glinda gave the signal to stop, for their work
had been accomplished.

The blackened submarine was now entirely out of water, but Uncle Henry
and Cap'n Bill managed to push it into the lake. Glinda, the Wizard,
Ervic and the Adepts got into the boat, taking with them a coil of
strong rope, and at the command of the Sorceress the craft cleaved its
way through the water toward the part of the Dome which was now visible.

"There's still plenty of water for the fish to swim in," observed the
Wizard as they rode along. "They might like more but I'm sure they can
get along until we have raised the island and can fill up the lake
again."

The boat touched gently on the sloping glass of the Dome, and the
Wizard took some tools from his black bag and quickly removed one large
pane of glass, thus making a hole large enough for their bodies to pass
through. Stout frames of steel supported the glass of the Dome, and
around one of these frames the Wizard tied the end of a rope.

"I'll go down first," said he, "for while I'm not as spry as Cap'n Bill
I'm sure I can manage it easily. Are you sure the rope is long enough
to reach the bottom?"

"Quite sure," replied the Sorceress.

So the Wizard let down the rope and climbing through the opening
lowered himself down, hand over hand, clinging to the rope with his
legs and feet. Below in the streets of the village were gathered all
the Skeezers, men, women and children, and you may be sure that Ozma
and Dorothy, with Lady Aurex, were filled with joy that their friends
were at last coming to their rescue.

The Queen's palace, now occupied by Ozma, was directly in the center of
the Dome, so that when the rope was let down the end of it came just in
front of the palace entrance. Several Skeezers held fast to the rope's
end to steady it and the Wizard reached the ground in safety. He hugged
first Ozma and then Dorothy, while all the Skeezers cheered as loud as
they could.

The Wizard now discovered that the rope was long enough to reach from
the top of the Dome to the ground when doubled, so he tied a chair to
one end of the rope and called to Glinda to sit in the chair while he
and some of the Skeezers lowered her to the pavement. In this way the
Sorceress reached the ground quite comfortably and the three Adepts and
Ervic soon followed her.

The Skeezers quickly recognized the three Adepts at Magic, whom they
had learned to respect before their wicked Queen betrayed them, and
welcomed them as friends. All the inhabitants of the village had been
greatly frightened by their imprisonment under water, but now realized
that an attempt was to be made to rescue them.

Glinda, the Wizard and the Adepts followed Ozma and Dorothy into the
palace, and they asked Lady Aurex and Ervic to join them. After Ozma
had told of her adventures in trying to prevent war between the
Flatheads and the Skeezers, and Glinda had told all about the Rescue
Expedition and the restoration of the three Adepts by the help of
Ervic, a serious consultation was held as to how the island could be
made to rise.

"I've tried every way in my power," said Ozma, "but Coo-ee-oh used a
very unusual sort of magic which I do not understand. She seems to have
prepared her witchcraft in such a way that a spoken word is necessary
to accomplish her designs, and these spoken words are known only to
herself."

"That is a method we taught her," declared Aurah the Adept.

"I can do no more, Glinda," continued Ozma, "so I wish you would try
what your sorcery can accomplish."

"First, then," said Glinda, "let us visit the basement of the island,
which I am told is underneath the village."

A flight of marble stairs led from one of Coo-ee-oh's private rooms
down to the basement, but when the party arrived all were puzzled by
what they saw. In the center of a broad, low room, stood a mass of
great cog-wheels, chains and pulleys, all interlocked and seeming to
form a huge machine; but there was no engine or other motive power to
make the wheels turn.

"This, I suppose, is the means by which the island is lowered or
raised," said Ozma, "but the magic word which is needed to move the
machinery is unknown to us."

The three Adepts were carefully examining the mass of wheels, and soon
the golden-haired one said:

"These wheels do not control the island at all. On the contrary, one
set of them is used to open the doors of the little rooms where the
submarines are kept, as may be seen from the chains and pulleys used.
Each boat is kept in a little room with two doors, one to the basement
room where we are now and the other letting into the lake.

"When Coo-ee-oh used the boat in which she attacked the Flatheads, she
first commanded the basement door to open and with her followers she
got into the boat and made the top close over them. Then the basement
door being closed, the outer door was slowly opened, letting the water
fill the room to float the boat, which then left the island, keeping
under water."

"But how could she expect to get back again?" asked the Wizard.

"Why the boat would enter the room filled with water and after the
outer door was closed a word of command started a pump which pumped all
the water from the room. Then the boat would open and Coo-ee-oh could
enter the basement."

"I see," said the Wizard. "It is a clever contrivance, but won't work
unless one knows the magic words."

"Another part of this machinery," explained the white-haired Adept, "is
used to extend the bridge from the island to the mainland. The steel
bridge is in a room much like that in which the boats are kept, and at
Coo-ce-oh's command it would reach out, joint by joint, until its far
end touched the shore of the lake. The same magic command would make
the bridge return to its former position. Of course the bridge could
not be used unless the island was on the surface of the water."

"But how do you suppose Coo-ee-oh managed to sink the island, and make
it rise again?" inquired Glinda.

This the Adepts could not yet explain. As nothing more could be learned
from the basement they mounted the steps to the Queen's private suite
again, and Ozma showed them to a special room where Coo-ee-oh kept her
magical instruments and performed all her arts of witchcraft.

Many interesting things were to be seen in the Room of Magic, including
much that had been stolen from the Adepts when they were transformed to
fishes, but they had to admit that Coo-ee-oh had a rare genius for
mechanics, and had used her knowledge in inventing a lot of mechanical
apparatus that ordinary witches, wizards and sorcerers could not
understand.

They all carefully inspected this room, taking care to examine every
article they came across.

"The island," said Glinda thoughtfully, "rests on a base of solid
marble. When it is submerged, as it is now, the base of the island is
upon the bottom of the lake. What puzzles me is how such a great weight
can be lifted and suspended in the water, even by magic."