The Road to Oz Page 13

  The Deadly Desert Crossed

  "Oh, that's too bad!" cried Dorothy; "I wanted to thank Johnny Dooit forall his kindness to us."

  "He hasn't time to listen to thanks," replied the shaggy man; "but I'msure he knows we are grateful. I suppose he is already at work in someother part of the world."

  They now looked more carefully at the sand-boat, and saw that the bottomwas modelled with two sharp runners which would glide through the sand.The front of the sand-boat was pointed like the bow of a ship, and therewas a rudder at the stern to steer by.

  It had been built just at the edge of the desert, so that all itslength lay upon the grey sand except the after part, which still restedon the strip of grass.

  "Get in, my dears," said the shaggy man; "I'm sure I can manage thisboat as well as any sailor. All you need do is sit still in yourplaces."

  Dorothy got in, Toto in her arms, and sat on the bottom of the boat justin front of the mast. Button-Bright sat in front of Dorothy, while Pollyleaned over the bow. The shaggy man knelt behind the mast. When all wereready he raised the sail half way. The wind caught it. At once thesand-boat started forward--slowly at first, then with added speed. Theshaggy man pulled the sail way up, and they flew so fast over theDeadly Desert that every one held fast to the sides of the boat andscarcely dared to breathe.

  The sand lay in billows, and was in places very uneven, so that the boatrocked dangerously from side to side; but it never quite tipped over,and the speed was so great that the shaggy man himself became frightenedand began to wonder how he could make the ship go slower.

  "If we're spilled in this sand, in the middle of the desert," Dorothythought to herself, "we'll be nothing but dust in a few minutes, andthat will be the end of us."

  But they were not spilled, and by-and-bye Polychrome, who was clingingto the bow and looking straight ahead, saw a dark line before them andwondered what it was. It grew plainer every second, until she discoveredit to be a row of jagged rocks at the end of the desert, while highabove these rocks she could see a tableland of green grass and beautifultrees.

  "Look out!" she screamed to the shaggy man. "Go slowly, or we shallsmash into the rocks."

  He heard her, and tried to pull down the sail; but the wind would notlet go of the broad canvas and the ropes had become tangled.

  Nearer and nearer they drew to the great rocks, and the shaggy man wasin despair because he could do nothing to stop the wild rush of thesand-boat.

  "LOOK OUT!" SCREAMED POLYCHROME]

  They reached the edge of the desert and bumped squarely into the rocks.There was a crash as Dorothy, Button-Bright, Toto and Polly flew up inthe air in a curve like a skyrocket's, one after another landing highupon the grass, where they rolled and tumbled for a time before theycould stop themselves.

  The shaggy man flew after them, head first, and lighted in a heap besideToto, who, being much excited at the time, seized one of the donkey earsbetween his teeth and shook and worried it as hard as he could, growlingangrily. The shaggy man made the little dog let go, and sat up to lookaround him.

  Dorothy was feeling one of her front teeth, which was loosened byknocking against her knee as she fell. Polly was looking sorrowfully ata rent in her pretty gauze gown, and Button-Bright's fox head had stuckfast in a gopher hole and he was wiggling his little fat legsfrantically in an effort to get free.

  Otherwise they were unhurt by the adventure; so the shaggy man stood upand pulled Button-Bright out of the hole and went to the edge of thedesert to look at the sand-boat. It was a mere mass of splinters now,crushed out of shape against the rocks. The wind had torn away the sailand carried it to the top of a tall tree, where the fragments of itfluttered like a white flag.

  "Well," he said, cheerfully, "we're here; but where the here is I don'tknow."

  "It must be some part of the Land of Oz," observed Dorothy, coming tohis side.

  "Must it?"

  "'Course it must. We're across the desert, aren't we? And somewhere inthe middle of Oz is the Emerald City."

  "To be sure," said the shaggy man, nodding. "Let's go there."

  "But I don't see any people about, to show us the way," she continued.

  "Let's hunt for them," he suggested. "There must be people somewhere;but perhaps they did not expect us, and so are not at hand to give us awelcome."