  Mustafa's Blue Magic Notta rose unsteadily and lifted Bob into one of the side seats. Then he staggered over to the front of the bus and, holding his head with one hand, peered down at the gear and machinery. There was a row of buttons under the steering wheel and the first button said "Slower." Notta hastily pushed this one and the great feather wheels on each side immediately slackened their frantic whirling, and while Nick held the lever Notta investigated their strange flying machine still further. It was shaped like an immense hollowed-out goose, with seats on each side and a high seat near the head. The head turned with the steering wheel and honked loudly when you pushed the button marked "Blow." The tail of the goose moved from side to side, and the four powerful wheels whirled around continuously, so that the noise, when the bus flew swiftly, was terrific. Now, however, it was running more quietly, and Bob, no longer feeling giddy, began to look around with keen interest. Notta had pressed another button marked "Middle Air—Down," and they were slanting gently toward the earth, floating almost without movement of the great feather wheels. "Isn't this fun?" cried Bob, giving the clown a little hug as he sat down in the seat ahead. "Well," chuckled Notta, "I don't usually fly before breakfast, but I'd fly from Un any time." Snorer, who still held the lever, beamed over his shoulder at the clown. "Didn't I manage well?" he chirped happily. "I say, when anything's to be done just leave it to old Nickadoodle." "We can never thank you enough," declared Notta. "But how will you get back? Will you fly?" "I'm not going back," exulted Snorer, flapping his wings. "I'd be unusual anywhere and I am never going to leave you, you beautiful creature." "Then our fortune is made," said the clown, with a wink at Bob, "for in a circus you'd be more than half the show." "I'll show them how to snore," chuckled Nick. "I do that better than anything else. But I'd do anything for you, for I love you with all my heart," continued Snorer calmly, "and the boy, too. And I love—" "Don't you dare love me," rumbled the Cowardly Lion, wrathfully jerking his head from beneath the seat. "I won't allow it!" "All right," sighed Nick, adjusting his nose. "I'll try not to love you, but it's going to be hard work, you're so handsome." "There! There!" interrupted the Cowardly Lion gruffly, but he couldn't help looking pleased. "You may like me if you wish," he added mildly. "Any land in sight?" Notta leaned far over the edge of the bus. "I think I see a village of some kind far down below. Here, Bob, you come help steer." So, while Nick grasped the lever to hold the bus steady, Bob sat in the high seat and turned the great goose head as Notta directed, now to the left and now to the right, and in less than an hour, they were floating slowly over a quaint blue city. "We're still in the Munchkin country," rumbled the Cowardly Lion, standing on his hind legs and looking over the side. "Well, we'll just fly over this town and land in one of those fields," puffed Notta uneasily. He was not sure he wouldn't impale the Flyaboutabus on a steeple, or run over some of the inhabitants, if he attempted to land in the city itself. As it was they flew quite a distance before he located all the buttons necessary to make a landing. The Flyaboutabus came to earth with such a bounce that they all flew up like rubber balls, while the bus continued to fly and bump around the field until Notta ran after it and tied it to a tree. "And now what?" asked Nick, carefully putting his troublesome nose on its hook. "Breakfast!" wheezed the Cowardly Lion, rolling out of a huge bramble bush. "Aren't you hungry, Bob?" Bob nodded. "But where are we going to get it?" he asked, looking rather puzzled. "One never knows in Oz, but if we look carefully, we'll be sure to find something," answered the lion easily. "Let's make it a game," suggested Notta, patting his figure in various important places to see whether his disguises were still safe. "Now then, all ready for a breakfast hunt. I'll take this field, Nick can take the air and Bob and the Cowardly Lion may have the woods." Bob smiled a little to himself. Hunting breakfast in the woods did seem ridiculous but, as the Cowardly Lion went poking his head in bushes and sniffing around trees in a businesslike manner, Bob began to look too. There were plenty of flowers in the woods, and for a time Bob found nothing else. At last pushing through a tangle of vines, the little boy found himself standing under a stout little tree that rattled curiously when the wind passed through its branches. There was a sign on the tree. Standing on his toes Bob spelled it out laboriously. Then he called Notta in excited little shrieks. "What is it?" panted the clown, breaking through the vines with the Cowardly Lion one leap behind him. "Are you hurt?" "No," cried Bob, "but I've won!" He pointed gleefully to the tree. "Travelers' Tree," read Notta, "planted by the Wizard Wam in the year 1120 O. Z. " "Well, hurrah for Wam!" chortled the clown, and began walking all around the tree, while the Cowardly Lion sat down and panted a little from his long run. The lower branches were gay with many pink cups and on the next, poised over the cups, were the sauciest little tea, cocoa and coffee pots imaginable. Higher up grew clusters of covered dishes of every kind. In the very top of the tree was a large nest of some sort. Snorer, who came flying back just then, declared it was full of eggs. Instead of leaves, the tree flaunted many bright paper napkin blossoms. "Be sure to plant your dishes when you have finished eating," directed another sign quite sternly. With a happy little chuckle, Bob picked a napkin for each, and three for the Cowardly Lion. Then Notta broke a coffee cup from its stem, and no sooner had he touched the cup than the coffee pot on the next branch tilted gently and filled the cup with fragrant hot coffee. The clown was so startled that he accidentally brushed off another cup, at which a cocoa pot poured a cup full of cocoa over his head before he had time to duck. Spluttering and coughing, Notta drew back, but that was the only accident, and as the clown said, it saved him from washing his face. The Cowardly Lion drank a dozen cups of coffee, one right after the other. Bob had two cups of cocoa, and Snorer, holding a tea cup in one claw, sipped the beverage suspiciously, then flew off to find something more to his taste. Next, Notta picked five dishes of Ozish stew for the Cowardly Lion, a plate full of meat hash for himself and a chop and baked potato for Bob Up. Nothing could have been jollier than that breakfast. The Cowardly Lion forgot to worry about his feathers, Bob forgot he had ever been an orphan, and Notta forgot that he was lost in a strange magic country and in the power of the wicked monarch of Mudge. When they could not eat another bite, Snorer flew to the top of a tree and brought down dozens of eggs from the nest. Strangely enough, they were hard boiled and Bob filled his blouse with them, for as Notta said, there was no telling where they would be by noon. The Cowardly Lion now dug a deep hole and they buried all the dishes, which was lots less trouble than washing them, then back they went to the Flyaboutabus. Bob chattered quite gaily to Nickadoodle, but Notta and the Cowardly Lion walked along in silence. Notta, after the valiant way the lion had defended them from the Uns, could not bear the idea of betraying this strange new friend. Better a thousand times turn blue than have the kind-hearted Cowardly Lion fall into the merciless hands of Mustafa. "Perhaps the old Mudger's ring will not work any way," reflected Notta uncomfortably. "Perhaps it was just a threat to frighten us." If they could just reach this wonderful Emerald City and tell their story to Dorothy, everything would turn out happily. And that, decided Notta, was what he would do. The Cowardly Lion, on his part, was thinking how terrible it would have been had he eaten Notta on that first morning of their meeting. He felt guilty every time he looked at the jolly, companionable clown. The more he thought about the Patchwork Girl's suggestion, the more ashamed of himself he felt. Why it was perfectly unish, this idea of devouring a brave man. No wonder he had grown a larger bunch of feathers than Notta and Bob! If there was no other way to acquire courage, he would stay a coward forever and that was the end of that! No sooner had the Cowardly Lion reached this conclusion, than he, too, felt light-hearted and happy again and began to roar with appreciation at Notta's funny antics and jokes. When they reached the Flyaboutabus, it was jerking at its rope as if it was anxious to be off, and so were they all for that matter. "Which way is the Emerald City from here?" asked Notta, turning to the Cowardly Lion. "I've lost my bearings." The Cowardly Lion looked first north, then south. He knew they were in the Munchkin Country, but their flight to Un had confused him terribly. "I think it's straight ahead," he roared uncertainly. "Let's run along the ground for a while till we're sure." "All right," agreed the clown and, calling to Bob, started for the bus. But half way he stopped in horror. Bob, though perfectly unconscious of it, had turned as blue as washday. At the same time Notta caught the Cowardly Lion staring at him fixedly. "What's the matter?" choked Notta. "Am I blue, too?" "Not very," faltered the lion, whose heart was in his throat at the awful change in his friends. Notta looked down at his hands with a shudder. "I'm as blue as the Danube," he muttered unhappily. "But that's all the better. Why, a blue clown ought to be the greatest curiosity yet. Wait till I reach America with my new skin and feathers." Notta went on trying to make a joke of it, but his voice shook a little in spite of himself, and when he tried a light double somersault an even worse thing happened. Halfway around he found himself unable to move, and there he stood on his head, powerless to straighten his arms or legs. There was no doubt about it, Mustafa had taken off his magic ring. For when Bob tried to run to Notta's assistance he was caught with one foot in the air. "Help, help!" croaked Snorer, flying frantically from one to the other. His nose came off the hook and hung straight down, but he never even noticed it. "Fly up a tree, can't you!" roared the Cowardly Lion, as Snorer flapped into his face and almost blinded him with his wings. With a quick spring he reached Notta's side. "Better lift me down," puffed the clown, for under the blue he was turning crimson from standing so long upside down. The Cowardly Lion obeyed, and placed him gently on the ground, where he lay as stiff as a statue. "It's magic!" growled the lion. "Blue magic!" "It's Mustafa!" groaned Notta, looking dismally at Bob. "I guess I'll have to tell you the whole story." In short jerks and gasps, for he could barely move his lips, he told how Mustafa had sent them to capture the Cowardly Lion and of how he had threatened them with the magic ring if they failed to obey him. "But you did disobey him," breathed the lion, lashing his tail. "Even when you knew what would happen, you made no attempt to capture me!" Tears of gratitude rolled down his nose. "You're the bravest man in Oz," he choked miserably, "but look what it has brought you to?" "Weren't you looking for the bravest man in Oz?" asked Notta, suddenly remembering their first conversation. "That's how we happened to meet you, I think." The Cowardly Lion nodded gloomily, for it was now his turn to confess. With many apologies and sighs he told Notta of his quest for courage and his determination to devour a brave man, the bravest man that he met. "But you didn't do it!" shouted Notta triumphantly. "And many a chance you've had if you had cared to take it. Cheer up, old fellow, there's some way out of it." Snorer with suppressed gurgles and sobs had listened to both stories. Now he held up his claw. "As I understand," croaked the bird, pushing his curly nose back of his ear, "Mustafa's ring has turned black because you have not captured the Cowardly Lion?" "That's about it," admitted Notta, trying to wink at Bob, but finding it impossible to move his eyelid. "Well, then," sniffled Snorer with a little hop, "why not capture him? Wait, I'll get a rope." He flew off to the Flyaboutabus, first stopping to comfort Bob Up. "Let us meet magic with strategy," cawed Nick, flying back with a long piece of rope in his bill. "I'll never urge him a step," declared Notta firmly. "Not if I have to stay blue and still for the rest of my life." "You won't have to," rumbled the Cowardly Lion, who was beginning to look quite cheerful. "I'll run all the way to Mudge and give myself up to this ridiculous Mustafa." He made a little spring, but Snorer with a screech barred the way. "Have you no sense?" shrilled Nick sharply. "I said strategy." He tied the rope hastily around the Cowardly Lion's neck and placed the end in Notta's stiff hand. And no sooner had he done so than Bob, with a little shout, ran over to Notta and the clown also found himself able to move about once more. While Nick and the Cowardly Lion watched anxiously, the offensive blue faded out, leaving Notta's face white and powdery and Bob's rosy and freckled. "So long as you keep hold of the rope everything will be all right," chuckled Snorer strutting proudly up and down, "for while you have the rope the Cowardly Lion is captured." "Then we'll just run double harness until we think of something else," said the Cowardly Lion. "Tie the rope 'round your waist, Notta, old boy. Then you'll be sure not to lose me." Rather thoughtfully Notta obeyed, but he could not help thinking that being tied to a Cowardly Lion might prove awfully awkward at times. The Cowardly Lion, however, was in fine spirits, so Notta, swallowing his misgivings, stepped with the others into the Flyaboutabus. "And now that I'm captured," chuckled the Cowardly Lion mischievously, "what next?" "Oh, let someone else decide that," yawned Snorer. Flopping down in the last seat of the bus he was soon sound asleep and snoring loudly. |
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