Oz, the Complete Paperback Collection. L. Frank Baum

in so poor a fashion, after sending them to undergo hardships and slavery. So the Scarecrow at last asked the green girl to take another message to Oz, saying if he did not let them in to see him at once they would call the Winged Monkeys to help them, and find out whether he kept his promises or not. When the Wizard was given this message he was so frightened that he sent word for them to come to the Throne Room at four minutes after nine o'clock the next morning. He had once met the Winged Monkeys in the Land of the West, and he did not wish to meet them again.

      The four travelers passed a sleepless night, each thinking of the gift Oz had promised to bestow on him. Dorothy fell asleep only once, and then she dreamed she was in Kansas, where Aunt Em was telling her how glad she was to have her little girl at home again.

      Promptly at nine o'clock the next morning the green-whiskered soldier came to them, and four minutes later they all went into the Throne Room of the Great Oz.

      Of course each one of them expected to see the Wizard in the shape he had taken before, and all were greatly surprised when they looked about and saw no one at all in the room. They kept close to the door and closer to one another, for the stillness of the empty room was more dreadful than any of the forms they had seen Oz take.

      Presently they heard a solemn Voice, that seemed to come from somewhere near the top of the great dome, and it said:

      "I am Oz, the Great and Terrible. Why do you seek me?"

      They looked again in every part of the room, and then, seeing no one, Dorothy asked, "Where are you?"

      "I am everywhere," answered the Voice, "but to the eyes of common mortals I am invisible. I will now seat myself upon my throne, that you may converse with me." Indeed, the Voice seemed just then to come straight from the throne itself; so they walked toward it and stood in a row while Dorothy said:

      "We have come to claim our promise, O Oz."

      "What promise?" asked Oz.

      "You promised to send me back to Kansas when the Wicked Witch was destroyed," said the girl.

      "And you promised to give me brains," said the Scarecrow.

      "And you promised to give me a heart," said the Tin Woodman.

      "And you promised to give me courage," said the Cowardly Lion.

      "Is the Wicked Witch really destroyed?" asked the Voice, and Dorothy thought it trembled a little.

      "Yes," she answered, "I melted her with a bucket of water."

      "Dear me," said the Voice, "how sudden! Well, come to me tomorrow, for I must have time to think it over."

      "You've had plenty of time already," said the Tin Woodman angrily.

      "We shan't wait a day longer," said the Scarecrow.

      "You must keep your promises to us!" exclaimed Dorothy.

      The Lion thought it might be as well to frighten the Wizard, so he gave a large, loud roar, which was so fierce and dreadful that Toto jumped away from him in alarm and tipped over the screen that stood in a corner. As it fell with a crash they looked that way, and the next moment all of them were filled with wonder. For they saw, standing in just the spot the screen had hidden, a little old man, with a bald head and a wrinkled face, who seemed to be as much surprised as they were. The Tin Woodman, raising his axe, rushed toward the little man and cried out, "Who are you?"

      "I am Oz, the Great and Terrible," said the little man, in a trembling voice. "But don't strike me—please don't—and I'll do anything you want me to."

      Our friends looked at him in surprise and dismay.

      "I thought Oz was a great Head," said Dorothy.

      "And I thought Oz was a lovely Lady," said the Scarecrow.

      "And I thought Oz was a terrible Beast," said the Tin Woodman.

      "And I thought Oz was a Ball of Fire," exclaimed the Lion.

      "No, you are all wrong," said the little man meekly. "I have been making believe."

      "Making believe!" cried Dorothy. "Are you not a Great Wizard?"

      "Hush, my dear," he said. "Don't speak so loud, or you will be overheard—and I should be ruined. I'm supposed to be a Great Wizard."

      "And aren't you?" she asked.

      "Not a bit of it, my dear; I'm just a common man."

      "You're more than that," said the Scarecrow, in a grieved tone; "you're a humbug."

      "Exactly so!" declared the little man, rubbing his hands together as if it pleased him. "I am a humbug."

      "But this is terrible," said the Tin Woodman. "How shall I ever get my heart?"

      "Or I my courage?" asked the Lion.

      "Or I my brains?" wailed the Scarecrow, wiping the tears from his eyes with his coat sleeve.

      "My dear friends," said Oz, "I pray you not to speak of these little things. Think of me, and the terrible trouble I'm in at being found out."

      "Doesn't anyone else know you're a humbug?" asked Dorothy.

      "No one knows it but you four—and myself," replied Oz. "I have fooled everyone so long that I thought I should never be found out. It was a great mistake my ever letting you into the Throne Room. Usually I will not see even my subjects, and so they believe I am something terrible."

      "But, I don't understand," said Dorothy, in bewilderment. "How was it that you appeared to me as a great Head?"

      "That was one of my tricks," answered Oz. "Step this way, please, and I will tell you all about it."

      He led the way to a small chamber in the rear of the Throne Room, and they all followed him. He pointed to one corner, in which lay the great Head, made out of many thicknesses of paper, and with a carefully painted face.

      "This I hung from the ceiling by a wire," said Oz. "I stood behind the screen and pulled a thread, to make the eyes move and the mouth open."

      "But how about the voice?" she inquired.

      "Oh, I am a ventriloquist," said the little man. "I can throw the sound of my voice wherever I wish, so that you thought it was coming out of the Head. Here are the other things I used to deceive you." He showed the Scarecrow the dress and the mask he had worn when he seemed to be the lovely Lady. And the Tin Woodman saw that his terrible Beast was nothing but a lot of skins, sewn together, with slats to keep their sides out. As for the Ball of Fire, the false Wizard had hung that also from the ceiling. It was really a ball of cotton, but when oil was poured upon it the ball burned fiercely.

      "Really," said the Scarecrow, "you ought to be ashamed of yourself for being such a humbug."

      "I am—I certainly am," answered the little man sorrowfully; "but it was the only thing I could do. Sit down, please, there are plenty of chairs; and I will tell you my story."

      So they sat down and listened while he told the following tale.

      "I was born in Omaha—"

      "Why, that isn't very far from Kansas!" cried Dorothy.

      "No, but it's farther from here," he said, shaking his head at her sadly. "When I grew up I became a ventriloquist, and at that I was very well trained by a great master. I can imitate any kind of a bird or beast." Here he mewed so like a kitten that Toto pricked up his ears and looked everywhere to see where she was. "After a time," continued Oz, "I tired of that, and became a balloonist."

      "What is that?" asked Dorothy.

      "A man who goes up in a balloon on circus day, so as to draw a crowd of people together and get them to pay to see the circus," he explained.

      "Oh," she said, "I know."

      "Well, one day I went up in a balloon and the ropes got twisted, so that I couldn't come down again. It went way up above the clouds, so far that a current of air struck it and carried it many, many miles away. For a day and a night I traveled