The Magic of Oz

The Kalidah, realizing after many struggles that it could not escape,

now became quiet, but it said in a harsh, snarling voice:

I suppose you think you're clever, to pin me to the ground in this

manner. But when my friends, the other Kalidahs, come here, they'll tear

you to pieces for treating me this way."

P'raps," remarked Cap'n Bill, coolly, as he chopped at the logs, "an'

p'raps not. When are your folks comin' here?"

I don't know," admitted the Kalidah. "But when they DO come, you

can't escape them."

If they hold off long enough, I'll have my raft ready," said Cap'n Bill.

What are you going to do with a raft?" inquired the beast.

We're goin' over to that island, to get the Magic Flower."

The huge beast looked at him in surprise a moment, and then it began

to laugh. The laugh was a good deal like a roar, and it had a cruel and

derisive sound, but it was a laugh nevertheless.

Good!" said the Kalidah. "Good! Very good! I'm glad you're going to

get the Magic Flower. But what will you do with it?"

We're going to take it to Ozma, as a present on her birthday."

The Kalidah laughed again; then it became sober. "If you get to the

land on your raft before my people can catch you," it said, "you will be

safe from us. We can swim like ducks, so the girl couldn't have escaped

me by getting into the water; but Kalidahs don't go to that island over

there."

Why not?" asked Trot.

The beast was silent.

Tell us the reason," urged Cap'n Bill.

Well, it's the Isle of the Magic Flower," answered the Kalidah, "and

we don't care much for magic. If you hadn't had a magic leg, instead of a

meat one, you couldn't have knocked me over so easily and stuck this

wooden pin through me."

I've been to the Magic Isle," said the Glass Cat, "and I've watched the

Magic Flower bloom, and I'm sure it's too pretty to be left in that lonely

place where only beasts prowl around it and no else sees it. So we're going