L. Frank Baum_Oz 14 Read Online Free PDF Page A

it, Ozma, I
am sure I don't know how I do it."
    It took them a good two hours to reach the foot of the round, flat
mountain, and then they found the sides so steep that they were like
the wall of a house.
    "Even my purple kitten couldn't climb 'em," remarked Dorothy, gazing
upward.
    "But there is some way for the Flatheads to get down and up again,"
declared Ozma; "otherwise they couldn't make war with the Skeezers, or
even meet them and quarrel with them."
    "That's so, Ozma. Let's walk around a ways; perhaps we'll find a ladder
or something."
    They walked quite a distance, for it was a big mountain, and as they
circled around it and came to the side that faced the palm trees, they
suddenly discovered an entrance way cut out of the rock wall. This
entrance was arched overhead and not very deep because it merely led to
a short flight of stone stairs.
    "Oh, we've found a way to the top at last," announced Ozma, and the two
girls turned and walked straight toward the entrance. Suddenly they
bumped against something and stood still, unable to proceed farther.
    "Dear me!" exclaimed Dorothy, rubbing her nose, which had struck
something hard, although she could not see what it was; "this isn't as
easy as it looks. What has stopped us, Ozma? Is it magic of some sort?"
    Ozma was feeling around, her bands outstretched before her.
    "Yes, dear, it is magic," she replied. "The Flatheads had to have a way
from their mountain top from the plain below, but to prevent enemies
from rushing up the stairs to conquer them, they have built, at a small
distance before the entrance a wall of solid stone, the stones being
held in place by cement, and then they made the wall invisible."
    "I wonder why they did that?" mused Dorothy. "A wall would keep folks
out anyhow, whether it could be seen or not, so there wasn't any use
making it invisible. Seems to me it would have been better to have left
it solid, for then no one would have seen the entrance behind it. Now
anybody can see the entrance, as we did. And prob'bly anybody that
tries to go up the stairs gets bumped, as we did."
    Ozma made no reply at once. Her face was grave and thoughtful.
    "I think I know the reason for making the wall invisible," she said
after a while. "The Flatheads use the stairs for coming down and going
up. If there was a solid stone wall to keep them from reaching the
plain they would themselves be imprisoned by the wall. So they had to
leave some place to get around the wall, and, if the wall was visible,
all strangers or enemies would find the place to go around it and then
the wall would be useless. So the Flatheads cunningly made their wall
invisible, believing that everyone who saw the entrance to the mountain
would walk straight toward it, as we did, and find it impossible to go
any farther. I suppose the wall is really high and thick, and can't be
broken through, so those who find it in their way are obliged to go
away again."
    "Well," said Dorothy, "if there's a way around the wall, where is it?"
    "We must find it," returned Ozma, and began feeling her way along the
wall. Dorothy followed and began to get discouraged when Ozma had
walked nearly a quarter of a mile away from the entrance. But now the
invisible wall curved in toward the side of the mountain and suddenly
ended, leaving just space enough between the wall and the mountain for
an ordinary person to pass through.
    The girls went in, single file, and Ozma explained that they were now
behind the barrier and could go back to the entrance. They met no
further obstructions.
    "Most people, Ozma, wouldn't have figured this thing out the way you
did," remarked Dorothy. "If I'd been alone the invisible wall surely
would have stumped me."
    Reaching the entrance they began to mount the stone stairs. They went
up ten stairs and then down five stairs, following a passage cut from
the rock. The stairs were just wide enough for the two girls to walk
abreast, arm in arm. At the bottom of the five stairs the passage
turned