7. Into the Black Pit and Out Again

Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

by L. Frank Baum

When they came to the mountain it proved to be a rugged, towering
chunk of deep green glass, and looked dismal and forbidding in the
extreme. Half way up the steep was a yawning cave, black as night
beyond the point where the rainbow rays of the colored suns reached
into it.

The Mangaboos drove the horse and the kitten and the piglets
into this dark hole and then, having pushed the buggy in after
them--for it seemed some of them had dragged it all the way from the
domed hall--they began to pile big glass rocks within the entrance,
so that the prisoners could not get out again.

"This is dreadful!" groaned Jim. "It will be about the end of
our adventures, I guess."

"If the Wizard was here," said one of the piglets, sobbing
bitterly, "he would not see us suffer so."

"We ought to have called him and Dorothy when we were first
attacked," added Eureka. "But never mind; be brave, my friends, and
I will go and tell our masters where you are, and get them to come to
your rescue."

The mouth of the hole was nearly filled up now, but the kitten
gave a leap through the remaining opening and at once scampered up
into the air. The Mangaboos saw her escape, and several of them
caught up their thorns and gave chase, mounting through the air after
her. Eureka, however, was lighter than the Mangaboos, and while they
could mount only about a hundred feet above the earth the kitten
found she could go nearly two hundred feet. So she ran along over
their heads until she had left them far behind and below and had come
to the city and the House of the Sorcerer. There she entered in at
Dorothy's window in the dome and aroused her from her sleep.

As soon as the little girl knew what had happened she awakened
the Wizard and Zeb, and at once preparations were made to go to the
rescue of Jim and the piglets. The Wizard carried his satchel, which
was quite heavy, and Zeb carried the two lanterns and the oil can.
Dorothy's wicker suit-case was still under the seat of the buggy, and
by good fortune the boy had also placed the harness in the buggy when
he had taken it off from Jim to let the horse lie down and rest. So
there was nothing for the girl to carry but the kitten, which she
held close to her bosom and tried to comfort, for its little heart
was still beating rapidly.

Some of the Mangaboos discovered them as soon as they left the
House of the Sorcerer; but when they started toward the mountain the
vegetable people allowed them to proceed without interference, yet
followed in a crowd behind them so that they could not go back
again.

Before long they neared the Black Pit, where a busy swarm of
Mangaboos, headed by their Princess, was engaged in piling up glass
rocks before the entrance.

"Stop, I command you!" cried the Wizard, in an angry tone, and
at once began pulling down the rocks to liberate Jim and the piglets.
Instead of opposing him in this they stood back in silence until he
had made a good-sized hole in the barrier, when by order of the
Princess they all sprang forward and thrust out their sharp
thorns.

Dorothy hopped inside the opening to escape being pricked, and
Zeb and the Wizard, after enduring a few stabs from the thorns, were
glad to follow her. At once the Mangaboos began piling up the rocks
of glass again, and as the little man realized that they were all
about to be entombed in the mountain he said to the children:

"My dears, what shall we do? Jump out and fight?"

"What's the use?" replied Dorothy. "I'd as soon die here as
live much longer among these cruel and heartless people."

"That's the way I feel about it," remarked Zeb, rubbing his
wounds. "I've had enough of the Mangaboos."

"All right," said the Wizard; "I'm with you, whatever you
decide. But we can't live long in this cavern, that's certain."

Noticing that the light was growing dim he picked up his nine
piglets, patted each one lovingly on its fat little head, and placed
them carefully in his inside pocket.

Zeb struck a match and lighted one of the lanterns. The rays of
the colored suns were now shut out from them forever, for the last
chinks had been filled up in the wall that separated their prison
from the Land of the Mangaboos.

"How big is this hole?" asked Dorothy.

"I'll explore it and see," replied the boy.

So he carried the lantern back for quite a distance, while
Dorothy and the Wizard followed at his side. The cavern did not come
to an end, as they had expected it would, but slanted upward through
the great glass mountain, running in a direction that promised to
lead them to the side opposite the Mangaboo country.

"It isn't a bad road," observed the Wizard, "and if we followed
it it might lead us to some place that is more comfortable than this
black pocket we are now in. I suppose the vegetable folk were always
afraid to enter this cavern because it is dark; but we have our
lanterns to light the way, so I propose that we start out and
discover where this tunnel in the mountain leads to."

The others agreed readily to this sensible suggestion, and at
once the boy began to harness Jim to the buggy. When all was in
readiness the three took their seats in the buggy and Jim started
cautiously along the way, Zeb driving while the Wizard and Dorothy
each held a lighted lantern so the horse could see where to go.

Sometimes the tunnel was so narrow that the wheels of the buggy
grazed the sides; then it would broaden out as wide as a street; but
the floor was usually smooth, and for a long time they travelled on
without any accident. Jim stopped sometimes to rest, for the climb
was rather steep and tiresome.

"We must be nearly as high as the six colored suns, by this
time," said Dorothy. "I didn't know this mountain was so tall."

"We are certainly a good distance away from the Land of the
Mangaboos," added Zeb; "for we have slanted away from it ever since
we started."

But they kept steadily moving, and just as Jim was about tired
out with his long journey the way suddenly grew lighter, and Zeb put
out the lanterns to save the oil.

To their joy they found it was a white light that now greeted
them, for all were weary of the colored rainbow lights which, after a
time, had made their eyes ache with their constantly shifting rays.
The sides of the tunnel showed before them like the inside of a long
spy-glass, and the floor became more level. Jim hastened his lagging
steps at this assurance of a quick relief from the dark passage, and
in a few moments more they had emerged from the mountain and found
themselves face to face with a new and charming country.