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10. Escaping the Soup-Kettle
The shaggy man got up and felt of himself to see if he was hurt; but he was
not. One of the heads had struck his breast and the other his left shoulder;
yet though they had knocked him down, the heads were not hard enough to
bruise him.
"
Come on," he said firmly; "we've got to get out of here some way," and forward
he started again.
The Scoodlers began yelling and throwing their heads in great numbers at our
frightened friends. The shaggy man was knocked over again, and so was
Button-Bright, who kicked his heels against the ground and howled as loud as
he could, although he was not hurt a bit. One head struck Toto, who first
yelped and then grabbed the head by an ear and started running away with it.
The Scoodlers who had thrown their heads began to scramble down and run
to pick them up, with wonderful quickness; but the one whose head Toto had
stolen found it hard to get it back again. The head couldn't see the body with
either pair of its eyes, because the dog was in the way, so the headless
Scoodler stumbled around over the rocks and tripped on them more than once
in its effort to regain its top. Toto was trying to get outside the rocks and roll
the head down the hill; but some of the other Scoodlers came to the rescue of
their unfortunate comrade and pelted the dog with their own heads until he
was obliged to drop his burden and hurry back to Dorothy.
The little girl and the Rainbow's Daughter had both escaped the shower of
heads, but they saw now that it would be useless to try to run away from the
dreadful Scoodlers.
"
We may as well submit," declared the shaggy man, in a rueful voice, as he got
upon his feet again. He turned toward their foes and asked:
"
"
What do you want us to do?"
Come!" they cried, in a triumphant chorus, and at once sprang from the
rocks and surrounded their captives on all sides. One funny thing about the
Scoodlers was they could walk in either direction, coming or going, without
turning around; because they had two faces and, as Dorothy said, "two front
sides," and their feet were shaped like the letter T upside down. They moved
with great rapidity and there was something about their glittering eyes and
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