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CHAPTER 22 - IN THE WICKER CASTLE
No sooner were the Wizard of Oz and his followers well within the castle
entrance when the big gates swung to with a clang and heavy bars dropped
across them. They looked at one another uneasily, but no one cared to speak
of the incident. If they were indeed prisoners in the wicker castle, it was
evident they must find a way to escape, but their first duty was to attend to
the errand on which they had come and seek the Royal Ozma, whom they
believed to be a prisoner of the magician, and rescue her.
They found they had entered a square courtyard, from which an entrance led
into the main building of the castle. No person had appeared to greet them so
far, although a gaudy peacock perched upon the wall cackled with laughter
and said in its sharp, shrill voice, "Poor fools! Poor fools!"
"
I hope the peacock is mistaken," remarked the Frogman, but no one else paid
any attention to the bird. They were a little awed by the stillness and
loneliness of the place. As they entered the doors of the castle, which stood
invitingly open, these also closed behind them and huge bolts shot into place.
The animals had all accompanied the party into the castle because they felt it
would be dangerous for them to separate. They were forced to follow a zigzag
passage, turning this way and that, until finally they entered a great central
hall, circular in form and with a high dome from which was suspended an
enormous chandelier.
The Wizard went first, and Dorothy, Betsy and Trot followed him, Toto keeping
at the heels of his little mistress. Then came the Lion, the Woozy and the
Sawhorse, then Cayke the Cookie Cook and Button-Bright, then the Lavender
Bear carrying the Pink Bear, and finally the Frogman and the Patchwork Girl,
with Hank the Mule tagging behind. So it was the Wizard who caught the first
glimpse of the big, domed hall, but the others quickly followed and gathered in
a wondering group just within the entrance.
Upon a raised platform at one side was a heavy table on which lay Glinda's
Great Book of Records, but the platform was firmly fastened to the floor and
the table was fastened to the platform and the Book was chained fast to the
table, just as it had been when it was kept in Glinda's palace. On the wall
over the table hung Ozma's Magic Picture. On a row of shelves at the opposite
side of the hall stood all the chemicals and essences of magic and all the
magical instruments that had been stolen from Glinda and Ozma and the
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