Chapter 12

The Search for the Wicked Witch

The soldier with the green whiskers led them through the streets of the Emerald City until they reached the room where the Guardian of the Gates lived. This officer unlocked their spectacles to put them back in his great box, and then he politely opened the gate.

“Which road leads to the Wicked Witch of the West?” asked Dorothy.

“There is no road,” answered the Guardian of the Gates. “No one ever wishes to go that way.”

“How, then, are we to find her?” inquired the girl.

“That will be easy,” replied the man, “for when she knows you are in the country of the Winkies she will find you, and make you all her slaves.”

“Perhaps not,” said the Scarecrow, “for we mean to destroy her.”

“Oh, that is different,” said the Guardian of the Gates. “No one has ever destroyed her before, so I naturally thought she would make slaves of you, as she has of the rest. But take care; for she is wicked and fierce, and may not allow you to destroy her. Keep to the West, where the sun sets, and you cannot fail to find her.”

They thanked him and told him good-bye, and turned toward the West. They walked over fields of soft grass with daisies and buttercups.

The Emerald City was soon left far behind. As they advanced the ground became rougher, for there were no farms nor houses in this country of the West.

In the afternoon the sun shone hot in their faces. Before night Dorothy and Toto and the Lion were tired, and lay down upon the grass and fell asleep, with the Woodman and the Scarecrow keeping watch.

Now the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, but it was as powerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere. So, as she sat in the door of her castle, she happened to look around and saw Dorothy lying asleep, with her friends all about her. They were far away, but the Wicked Witch was angry to find them in her country. She blew upon a silver whistle that hung around her neck.

At once there came running to her from all directions a pack of great wolves.

“Go to those people,” said the Witch, “and tear them to pieces.”

“Are you not going to make them your slaves?” asked the leader of the wolves.

“No,” she answered, “one is of tin, and one of straw; one is a girl and another a Lion. None of them is fit to work.”

“Very well,” said the wolf, and he ran away at full speed, followed by the others.

It was lucky the Scarecrow and the Woodman were wide awake and heard the wolves coming.

“Get behind me and I will meet them as they come,” said the Woodman.

There were forty wolves, and forty times a wolf was killed, so that at last they all lay dead in a heap before the Woodman.

Then he put down his axe and sat beside the Scarecrow, who said, “It was a good fight, friend.”

They waited until Dorothy awoke the next morning. The little girl was quite frightened when she saw the great pile of shaggy wolves, but the Tin Woodman told her what happened. She thanked him for saving them and sat down to breakfast, after which they started again upon their journey.

This same morning the Wicked Witch came to the door of her castle and looked out with her one eye that could see far off. She saw all her wolves lying dead, and the strangers still traveling through her country. This made her angrier than before, and she blew her silver whistle twice.

A great flock of wild crows came flying toward her, enough to darken the sky.

And the Wicked Witch said to the King Crow, “Fly at once to the strangers; peck out their eyes and tear them to pieces.”

The wild crows flew toward Dorothy and her companions. When the little girl saw them coming she was afraid.

But the Scarecrow said, “This is my battle, so lie down beside me and you will not be harmed.”

So they all lay upon the ground except the Scarecrow. He stood up and stretched out his arms.

When the crows saw him they were frightened and did not dare to come any nearer. But the King Crow said:

“It is only a stuffed man. I will peck his eyes out.”

The King Crow flew at the Scarecrow. But the Scarecrow caught it by the head and twisted its neck until it died. And then another crow flew at him, and the Scarecrow twisted its neck also. At last all crows were lying dead beside him. Then he called to his companions to rise, and they continued walking.

When the Wicked Witch looked out again and saw all her crows dead, she got into a terrible rage. This time she blew her silver whistle three times.

There was a great buzzing in the air, and a swarm of black bees came flying toward her.

“Go to the strangers and sting them to death!” commanded the Witch. The bees immediately flew to where Dorothy and her friends were walking.

The Woodman had seen them coming, and the Scarecrow had decided what to do.

“Take out my straw and put it over the little girl and the dog and the Lion,” he said to the Woodman, “and the bees cannot sting them.”

The bees came and found no one but the Woodman to sting. They flew at him and broke off all their stings against the tin, without hurting the Woodman at all. And as bees cannot live when their stings are broken that was the end of the black bees.

Then Dorothy and the Lion got up, and the girl helped the Tin Woodman put the straw back into the Scarecrow again. So they started upon their journey once more.

The Wicked Witch was so angry when she saw her black bees dead that she stamped her foot and tore her hair. She called a dozen of her slaves, the Winkies, and gave them sharp spears, telling them to go to the strangers and destroy them.

The Winkies were not a brave people, but they had to do as they were told. So they marched until they came near to Dorothy. Then the Lion gave a great roar, and the poor Winkies were so frightened that they ran back as fast as they could.

When they returned to the castle the Wicked Witch beat them with a strap, and sent them back to their work. Then she had another idea.

There was, in her cupboard, a Golden Cap, with a circle of diamonds and rubies running round it. This cap was magical. Whoever owned it could call three times upon the Winged Monkeys, who would obey any order they were given. The Wicked Witch had used the charm of the Cap twice already. Once was when she had made the Winkies her slaves, and made herself the ruler of their country. The second time was when she had fought against the Great Oz himself, and driven him out of the land of the West. Only once more could she use this Golden Cap. But now that her fierce wolves and her wild crows and her stinging bees were gone, she saw there was only one way left to destroy Dorothy and her friends.

So the Wicked Witch took the Golden Cap from her cupboard and placed it upon her head. Then she stood upon her left foot and said slowly:

“Ep-pe, pep-pe, kak-ke!”

Next she stood upon her right foot and said:

“Hil-lo, hol-lo, hel-lo!”

After this she stood upon both feet and cried in a loud voice:

“Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!”

The sky became darkened, and a low rumbling sound was heard in the air. There was a rushing of many wings, a great chattering and laughing, and the sun came out of the dark sky to show the Wicked Witch surrounded by a crowd of monkeys, each with a pair of immense wings on his shoulders.

Their leader flew close to the Witch and said, “You have called us for the third and last time. What do you command?”

“Go to the strangers who are within my land and destroy them all except the Lion,” said the Wicked Witch. “Bring that beast to me, for I have a mind to harness him like a horse, and make him work.”

“Your commands shall be obeyed,” said the leader. Then, with a great deal of chattering and noise, the Winged Monkeys flew away.

Some of the Monkeys seized the Tin Woodman and carried him through the air until they were over a country thickly covered with sharp rocks. Here they dropped the poor Woodman. He dell unto the rocks, and was so battered and dented that he could neither move nor groan.

Others of the Monkeys caught the Scarecrow, and with their long fingers pulled all of the straw out of his clothes and head. They made his hat and boots and clothes into a small bundle and threw it into the top branches of a tall tree.

The remaining Monkeys threw pieces of rope around the Lion and wound many coils about his body, until he was unable to struggle. Then they lifted him up and flew away with him to the Witch’s castle. There, they places him in a small yard with a high iron fence around it, so that he could not escape.

But Dorothy they did not harm at all. She stood, with Toto in her arms, watching the sad fate of her comrades and thinking it would soon be her turn. The leader of the Winged Monkeys flew up to her, but he saw the mark of the Good Witch’s kiss upon her forehead and stopped short. He motioned the others not to touch her.

“We won’t harm this little girl,” he said to them, “for she is protected by the Power of Good, and that is greater than the Power of Evil. All we can do is to carry her to the castle of the Wicked Witch.”

So, carefully and gently, they lifted Dorothy in their arms and carried her swiftly through the air to the castle. Then the leader said to the Witch:

“We have obeyed you as far as we were able. The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow are destroyed, and the Lion is tied up in your yard. The little girl we dare not harm, nor the dog she carries in her arms. Your power over our band is now ended, and you will never see us again.”

Then all the Winged Monkeys flew into the air and were soon out of sight.

The Wicked Witch was both surprised and worried when she saw the mark on Dorothy’s forehead. She looked down at Dorothy’s feet, and saw the Silver Shoes. She began to tremble with fear, for she knew what a powerful charm belonged to them. At first the Witch was tempted to run away from Dorothy; but then she looked into the child’s eyes and saw that the little girl did not know of the wonderful power the Silver Shoes gave her. So the Wicked Witch laughed to herself, and thought, “I can still make her my slave, for she does not know how to use her power.” Then she said to Dorothy:

“Come with me; do everything I tell you.”

Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her castle until they came to the kitchen, where the Witch made her clean the pots and kettles and sweep the floor and keep the fire fed with wood.

Dorothy went to work meekly, with her mind made up to work as hard as she could. She was glad the Wicked Witch had decided not to kill her.

With Dorothy hard at work, the Witch thought she would go into the courtyard and harness the Cowardly Lion like a horse. She wanted to make him draw her chariot. But as she opened the gate the Lion gave a loud roar and sprung at her so fiercely that the Witch was afraid and shut the gate again.

For that, the Witch took away Lion’s food. Every day she came to the gate at noon and asked, “Are you ready to be harnessed like a horse?”

And the Lion would answer, “No. If you come in this yard, I will bite you.”

The reason the Lion did not have to do as the Witch wished was that every night, while the woman was asleep, Dorothy carried him food from the cupboard. They would lie down together on the bed of straw, and talk about their troubles and tried to plan theirescape. But they could find no way to get out of the castle.

The girl had to work hard during the day, and often the Witch threatened to beat her with the same old umbrella she always carried in her hand. But, in truth, she did not dare to strike Dorothy, because of the mark upon her forehead. The child did not know this, and was full of fear for herself and Toto.

The Wicked Witch wanted the Silver Shoes which the girl always wore. They could’ve given her more power than all the other things she had lost. She watched Dorothy carefully, because she wanted to steal them.

Finally she thought of a trick that would give her what she wanted. She placed a bar of iron in the middle of the kitchen floor, and then made it invisible to human eyes by magic. When Dorothy walked across the floor she stumbled over the bar, not being able to see it, and fell. One of the Silver Shoes came off; and before she could reach it, the Witch had snatched it away and put it on her own skinny foot.

The wicked woman was greatly pleased with the success of her trick. For as long as she had one of the shoes she owned half the power of their charm, and Dorothy could not use it against her, even had she known how to do so.

The little girl, seeing she had lost one of her pretty shoes, grew angry, and said to the Witch, “Give me back my shoe!”

“I will not,” retorted the Witch, “for it is now my shoe, and not yours.”

“You are a wicked creature!” cried Dorothy. “You have no right to take my shoe from me.”

“I shall keep it, just the same,” said the Witch, laughing at her, “and someday I shall get the other one from you, too.”

This made Dorothy so very angry that she picked up the bucket of water that stood near and dashed it over the Witch, making her wet her from head to foot.

Instantly the wicked woman gave a loud cry of fear, and then, as Dorothy looked at her in wonder, the Witch began to shrink and fall away.

“See what you have done!” she screamed. “I’m melting!”

“I’m very sorry, indeed,” said Dorothy. She was truly frightened to see the Witch actually melting away like brown sugar before her very eyes.

“Didn’t you know water would be the end of me?” asked the Witch, in a wailing, despairing voice.

“Of course not,” answered Dorothy. “How should I?”

“Well, in a few minutes I shall be all melted. Look out—here I go!”

With these words the Witch fell down in a brown, melted, shapeless mass on the floor. Seeing that she had really melted away to nothing, Dorothy drew another bucket of water and threw it over the mess. She then swept it all out the door. After picking out the silver shoe, which was all that was left of the old woman, she cleaned and dried it with a cloth, and put it on her foot again. Then, being at last free, she ran out to the courtyard to tell the Lion that the Wicked Witch of the West had come to an end, and that they were no longer prisoners in a strange land.