CHAPTER 14

The Mimic Monarchs Lock Themselves In

Back in the Emerald City a great deal had been happening while Dorothy and the Wizard were adventuring on Mount Illuso.

You will recall that Toto had startled the Oz people by trotting into the Grand Dining Room and declaring that it was not Dorothy who sat at the head of the table. You see, in some ways animals are wiser than human beings. King Umb and Queen Ra were able to fool the Oz people just by _looking_ like Dorothy and the Wizard, but they couldn't deceive the keen senses of the little dog so easily. Toto's animal instinct warned him that this was not his beloved mistress Dorothy nor his old friend the Wizard. When Toto made his astonishing assertion every eye in the dining room turned questioningly upon the Mimic King and Queen.

Suddenly Queen Ra leaped to her feet. Grasping King Umb by the arm and hissing, "Hurry, you fool!" she pulled the Mimic King after her and the two dashed from the dining room.

For a moment everyone was too startled to move--except Toto. He sped like an arrow after the fleeing monarchs.

The quick-witted Scarecrow broke the spell by leaping to his feet and following with awkward haste after the dog. Instantly there rose a clamor of startled exclamations and bewildered questions from the Oz people who were thrown into confusion by these strange happenings.

By the time the Scarecrow had reached the corridor, King Umb, Queen Ra and Toto were nowhere in sight. But the straw man could hear Toto's excited barking. Following in the direction of the sound, down one corridor and up another, the Scarecrow arrived in the wing of the palace usually occupied by Ozma, and found Toto barking before a closed door. The little dog's eyes flashed angrily.

When Toto saw the Scarecrow, he stopped barking and said, "I was just too late. They slammed the door in my face and now I suppose it is locked." The Scarecrow attempted to turn the knob with his stuffed hand and found that, as Toto suspected, the door was locked.

"Do you know what room this is?" Toto asked.

"Of course," replied the Scarecrow, "it's Ozma's Chamber of Magic."

"Yes," went on the little dog, "the same room where the imitation Dorothy and Wizard have shut themselves in all day. Why? I want to know! I tell you, Scarecrow, there's something awfully funny going on here."

The straw man was thoughtful. "I agree with you, Toto. Something is happening that we don't understand. We must find out what it is. I believe the wisest thing we can do is to return to the dining room and hold a council to talk this thing over. Maybe we will be able to find an explanation."

Silently the little dog agreed, and a short time later a group of the best-loved companions of Dorothy and the Wizard was gathered in a living room adjoining the Grand Dining room. The Scarecrow presided over the meeting.

"All we really know," he began, "is that Dorothy and the Wizard have been acting very strangely today--the second day of the absence of Ozma and Glinda. Toto insists that they are not Dorothy and the Wizard at all."

"Lan' sakes!" exclaimed Dorothy's Aunt Em, "I'll admit the child ain't been herself today, but it's down-right silly to say that our Dorothy's someone else. I ought to know my own niece!"

"Em, you're a-gittin' all mixed up," cautioned Uncle Henry. "You jest now said Dorothy ain't been herself today--that means she must be somebody else."

"But who could look so much like Dorothy and the Wizard?" queried Betsy Bobbin with a frown.

"And why should anyone wish to deceive us?" asked tiny Trot.

Now Cap'n Bill spoke up. "S'posin'," began the old sailor gruffly, "that we admit fer the moment that this _ain't_ the real Dorothy and the Wizard. Then the most important thing is--where _are_ the real Dorothy and the Wizard?"

"That's the smartest thing that's been said yet," declared Toto earnestly, with an admiring glance at Cap'n Bill. "Here we are, wasting time in talk, when something dreadful may be happening to Dorothy and the Wizard. Let's get busy and find them quickly."

"Maybe they're lost," suggested Button Bright. "If that's the case there's nothing to worry about, 'cause I've been lost lots of times and I always got found again." But no one paid any attention to the boy.

With her yarn hair dangling before her eyes, the Patchwork Girl danced to the front of the gathering. "The trouble with you people," she asserted, "is that you don't know how to add two and two and get four."

"What do you mean by that, Scraps?" asked the Scarecrow.

"Just this," retorted the stuffed girl, saucily making a face at the Scarecrow. "What did we overhear Dorothy and the Wizard discussing today in the garden? Magic! They were talking about a magic spell which they hoped to find before Ozma and Glinda returned. All right. Now where did Dorothy and the Wizard spend most of the day and where have they fled just now to lock themselves in? To Ozma's Chamber of _Magic_!" The Patchwork Girl concluded triumphantly, "Mark my words there's magic behind all this, and the secret is hidden in Ozma's Chamber of Magic."

With his chin in his hand, the Scarecrow was regarding Scraps in silent admiration. "Sometimes," he said, "I almost believe your head is stuffed with the same quality of brains the Wizard put in mine."

"Nope!" denied Scraps emphatically. "It's not brains--just a little common sense." And with that the irrepressible creature leaped to the chandelier suspended from the ceiling and began chinning herself.

"Yes," agreed the Scarecrow with a sigh as he regarded her antics, "I guess I was wrong about your brains."

"But what are we going to _do_? That's what I want to know," demanded Toto impatiently.

"I believe," declared the Scarecrow finally, "there is only one thing we _can_ do. We must go to Ozma's Chamber of Magic and try to persuade this strange Dorothy and the Wizard to admit us. If they refuse, then we shall be obliged to break open the door and demand an explanation of their mysterious behavior."

"Good!" exclaimed Toto. "Let us go at once."

They all filed out of the room and made their way to Ozma's Chamber of Magic. The door was still locked. Several times the Scarecrow called to Dorothy and the Wizard to open the door and admit them, but there was no response. Then Cap'n Bill stepped forward. He knew what was expected of him as the biggest and strongest of the group. He placed a shoulder against the door and pushed. The door creaked and yielded. Again Cap'n Bill pushed. This time the door yielded more noticeably. Upon the third trial the door suddenly gave way before the old sailor man's weight, and the Scarecrow followed by Scraps, Trot, Betsy Bobbin, Button Bright and the rest crowded into Ozma's Chamber of Magic.