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fired all of his twelve bullets he had caused no damage to the enemy |
except to stun a few by the noise, and so he was no nearer to victory |
than in the beginning of the fray. |
[Illustration: THE WIZARD FIRED INTO THE THRONG.] |
"What shall we do now?" asked Dorothy, anxiously. |
"Let's yell--all together," said Zeb. |
"And fight at the same time," added the Wizard. "We will get near Jim, |
so that he can help us, and each one must take some weapon and do the |
best he can. I'll use my sword, although it isn't much account in this |
affair. Dorothy must take her parasol and open it suddenly when the |
wooden folks attack her. I haven't anything for you, Zeb." |
"I'll use the king," said the boy, and pulled his prisoner out of the |
buggy. The bound Gargoyle's arms extended far out beyond its head, so by |
grasping its wrists Zeb found the king made a very good club. The boy |
was strong for one of his years, having always worked upon a farm; so he |
was likely to prove more dangerous to the enemy than the Wizard. |
When the next company of Gargoyles advanced, our adventurers began |
yelling as if they had gone mad. Even the kitten gave a dreadfully |
shrill scream and at the same time Jim the cab-horse neighed loudly. |
This daunted the enemy for a time, but the defenders were soon out of |
breath. Perceiving this, as well as the fact that there were no more of |
the awful "bangs" to come from the revolvers, the Gargoyles advanced in |
a swarm as thick as bees, so that the air was filled with them. |
Dorothy squatted upon the ground and put up her parasol, which nearly |
covered her and proved a great protection. The Wizard's sword-blade |
snapped into a dozen pieces at the first blow he struck against the |
wooden people. Zeb pounded away with the Gargoyle he was using as a club |
until he had knocked down dozens of foes; but at the last they clustered |
so thickly about him that he no longer had room in which to swing his |
arms. The horse performed some wonderful kicking and even Eureka |
assisted when she leaped bodily upon the Gargoyles and scratched and bit |
at them like a wild-cat. |
But all this bravery amounted to nothing at all. The wooden things wound |
their long arms around Zeb and the Wizard and held them fast. Dorothy |
was captured in the same way, and numbers of the Gargoyles clung to |
Jim's legs, so weighting him down that the poor beast was helpless. |
Eureka made a desperate dash to escape and scampered along the ground |
like a streak; but a grinning Gargoyle flew after her and grabbed her |
before she had gone very far. |
All of them expected nothing less than instant death; but to their |
surprise the wooden creatures flew into the air with them and bore them |
far away, over miles and miles of wooden country, until they came to a |
wooden city. The houses of this city had many corners, being square and |
six-sided and eight-sided. They were tower-like in shape and the best of |
them seemed old and weather-worn; yet all were strong and substantial. |
To one of these houses which had neither doors nor windows, but only one |
broad opening far up underneath the roof, the prisoners were brought by |
their captors. The Gargoyles roughly pushed them into the opening, where |
there was a platform, and then flew away and left them. As they had no |
wings the strangers could not fly away, and if they jumped down from |
such a height they would surely be killed. The creatures had sense |
enough to reason that way, and the only mistake they made was in |
supposing the earth people were unable to overcome such ordinary |
difficulties. |
Jim was brought with the others, although it took a good many Gargoyles |
to carry the big beast through the air and land him on the high |
platform, and the buggy was thrust in after him because it belonged to |
the party and the wooden folks had no idea what it was used for or |
whether it was alive or not. When Eureka's captor had thrown the kitten |
after the others the last Gargoyle silently disappeared, leaving our |
friends to breathe freely once more. |
"What an awful fight!" said Dorothy, catching her breath in little |
gasps. |
"Oh, I don't know," purred Eureka, smoothing her ruffled fur with her |
paw; "we didn't manage to hurt anybody, and nobody managed to hurt us." |
"Thank goodness we are together again, even if we are prisoners," sighed |
the little girl. |
"I wonder why they didn't kill us on the spot," remarked Zeb, who had |
lost his king in the struggle. |
"They are probably keeping us for some ceremony," the Wizard answered, |
reflectively; "but there is no doubt they intend to kill us as dead as |
possible in a short time." |
"As dead as poss'ble would be pretty dead, wouldn't it?" asked Dorothy. |
"Yes, my dear. But we have no need to worry about that just now. Let us |
examine our prison and see what it is like." |
The space underneath the roof, where they stood, permitted them to see |
on all sides of the tall building, and they looked with much curiosity |
at the city spread out beneath them. Everything visible was made of |
wood, and the scene seemed stiff and extremely unnatural. |
From their platform a stair descended into the house, and the children |
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