  Oz Magic Triumphs Seven magic words! No sooner were they uttered than the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine lions were turned to so many stone statues—some just as they were about to spring, some half way in the air, so that they came clattering heavily down one on top of the other, and the poor Cowardly Lion at the bottom of the heap! "Somebody stop him!" gasped Ozma who was sitting exactly as she had fallen on a small sand dune. Sir Hokus of Pokes sprang bravely at Crunch, but his sword snapped at the first thrust, and the Stone Man, paying no more attention to the people from the Emerald City than if they had been so many flies, began bending out the iron bars of the lion enclosure. Mustafa, petrified with terror, might have been a statue himself, and the Mudger Guards had long since taken to their heels. "What have you done?" wailed Notta, trying to attract the Stone Man's attention. He seized an iron bar that Crouch had loosened and began valiantly belaboring Crunch about the shins. "Oh, hello!" rasped Crouch, glancing down at the clown. "Back again? Well, I've taken your advice, you see." "My advice!" groaned Notta. "Yes." Crunch, who had now broken an opening for himself, stepped into the enclosure. "I've helped the Cowardly Lion by changing him to stone. Now he will never feel cowardly again, and what's more, he belongs to me!" Leaning over, he began tossing Mustafa's lions aside as if they had been so many paper weights. "Oh, help!" screamed Snorer. "Aren't there any wizards here to stop this fellow? Are you going to sit like images while he runs off with the bravest lion in Oz?" "I must think!" groaned the Scarecrow, putting his white cotton glove to his head, while Dorothy and Bob ran close to the bars and looked anxiously for the first glimpse of their old friend. But Glinda and the Wizard of Oz already had their heads together. "First," whispered the little Wizard of Oz, "we will let him find the Cowardly Lion, for those statues would be too heavy for us to lift. Then, we will deprive him of all power to move." Tik Tok and Sir Hokus had followed the Stone Man into the enclosure, but a stone lion flung carelessly to one side, knocked Tik Tok head over heels, and Sir Hokus, deciding that flight was the better part of valor, retired to a safe distance, where he began threatening the Stone Man with every sort of destruction from hammering to hanging. But Crunch continued calmly tossing the lions about, and at last uncovered the Cowardly Lion himself. He recognized him at once, for his mane, a mass of stony waves, stood straight on end. The Cowardly Lion, you see, had been petrified in one of his most trying moments, and, while he was preparing to fight with all his might, he could not control his mane and hence looked as natural as possible. Dorothy could not help crying as Crunch tucked this lifelike image of her old chum under his arm and prepared to tramp off. But he got no further than two steps, for at the second step the combined magic of Glinda and the Wizard of Oz deprived him of all power to move. Crunch dropped the Cowardly Lion with a crash that chipped off a piece of his mane, and with one foot raised in the air stood perfectly motionless. The Stone Man was no longer alive! "Oh!" cried Notta, frightened by the ease with which Glinda had deprived the stone giant of life, "who will bring the Cowardly Lion to himself again?" And at once everyone ran over to the poor petrified lion, and tugging and pulling, managed to get him to his feet. "It was the only thing we could do," puffed the little Wizard of Oz, gazing up worriedly at the huge statue of Crunch. "He did not know how to use the gift of life, and would only have brought more trouble upon us." "Isn't this trouble enough?" cried Dorothy, throwing her arms around the cold, still figure of the Cowardly Lion. "There, there, my dear! Glinda will find a way out of all this," comforted the Scarecrow, and Notta and Bob joined him in his efforts to console the little girl, while Sir Hokus and the Tin Woodman ran to help Tik Tok to his feet. "All this has happened because of you!" declared Ozma, stamping her foot for the first time in her gentle little life, and looking sternly at Mustafa. "And for a punishment," she pointed at the huge, craggy figure of Crunch, "for a punishment this Stone Man shall stand forever in Mudge, a monument to your greediness and folly." "Take away his ring," whispered Bob, tip-toeing up to the little fairy ruler, for he had seen Mustafa slyly beginning to take it off and Bob knew its dreadful power. Without losing a minute, Ozma commanded Mustafa to hand over the ring. Tremblingly, the wretched old Mudger obeyed. So much had happened in the last few minutes, he was positively stunned by his misfortune. Not only had he offended the ruler of all Oz, lost the Cowardly Lion and his ring, but all of his other lions were turned to stone. Jerking his turban over one eye, the miserable monarch shuffled mournfully to his tent, and no one cared enough to stop him. Then, as the whole party was heartily disgusted with the hot, desert city of the Mudgers, Glinda, by a quick transportation phrase, wished them all safely back to the Emerald City. There, for several hours Glinda, the Wizard of Oz, and Ozma worked over the Cowardly Lion, but all of their magic failed to undo the Stone Man's spell, and it looked as if the huge beast would have to spend the rest of his life as a garden ornament. Twenty of the palace servants bore him down the steps and placed him gently in the center of a large flower bed, and all the inhabitants of the city came and gazed sadly at their once lively and cowardly comrade. "He is the image of himself," choked the Scarecrow, hanging a wreath of daisies round his neck, which was still adorned with Mustafa's gold collar. "But I don't want an image," cried Princess Dorothy and, climbing on the Cowardly Lion's stone back, she cried as if her heart would break. Notta and Bob were too overcome by this dreadful misfortune to think about themselves. It did not even seem right to enjoy the lovely sights in the Emerald City, so the clown and little boy sat on a bench in the garden and gazed sorrowfully at the monument of their faithful old friend. Dorothy cried as she came upon the petrified figure of her friend, the Cowardly Lion Then, all at once Bob jumped up with a little shout. "Look," he cried, waving his cap joyfully. "Look! He's coming alive again!" And so he was! For tears are more magic than anything else, when it comes to melting stone, and every spot where Dorothy's tears fell was beginning to quiver with life. When Notta ran to the palace with the news, the excitement was tremendous. Everyone, from Ozma down to the littlest kitchen maid, came to weep over the Cowardly Lion, and bring him back to life. The Tin Woodman cried a perfect torrent of tears and quite rusted his chain. The Scarecrow and Scraps had not a tear in their cotton constitutions, but Snorer made up for this by crying enough for three. Everybody cried, and in less than a minute the dear, old kind-hearted lion opened his eyes. Shaking himself sleepily, he looked inquiringly at the weeping company and wanted to know what was the matter. All talking at once, and each trying to hug him first, they explained what had happened. The Cowardly Lion remembered nothing after being pushed into the lion enclosure. You can well imagine his relief when he discovered what a hard and horrible fate he had escaped. "All this comes of my foolish wish for courage," roared the Cowardly Lion, shaking his mane, which was quite perfect except for the piece Crunch had broken off. "I would rather be a Cowardly Lion for five minutes than a stone lion for a century. Why, a stone lion has not enough sense to be frightened." "Hurrah for the Cowardly Lion of Oz!" shouted the Scarecrow, and Bob Up, who felt more at home among these odd and friendly people than he had ever felt anywhere in his life, climbed on the Cowardly Lion's back and hugged him with both arms. Dorothy hopped up again too, and in triumph they all trooped back to the throne room. |
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