The soldier with the green whiskers led them through thestreets of the Emerald City until they reached the room where theGuardian of the Gates lived. This officer unlocked their spectaclesto put them back in his great box, and then he politely opened thegate for our friends.

"Which road leads to the Wicked Witch of the West?" askedDorothy.

"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 youare in the country of the Winkies she will find you, and make youall 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 shewould 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 bade him good-bye, and turned toward the West,walking over fields of soft grass dotted here and there with daisiesand buttercups. Dorothy still wore the pretty silk dress she had put onin the palace, but now, to her surprise, she found it was no longer green,but pure white. The ribbon around Toto's neck had also lost its greencolor and was as white as Dorothy's dress.

The Emerald City was soon left far behind. As they advancedthe ground became rougher and hillier, for there were no farms norhouses in this country of the West, and the ground was untilled.

In the afternoon the sun shone hot in their faces, for therewere no trees to offer them shade; so that before night Dorothyand Toto and the Lion were tired, and lay down upon the grass andfell asleep, with the Woodman and the Scarecrow keeping watch.

Now the Wicked Witch of the West had but one eye, yet that was aspowerful as a telescope, and could see everywhere. So, as she sat inthe door of her castle, she happened to look around and saw Dorothylying asleep, with her friends all about her. They were a longdistance off, but the Wicked Witch was angry to find them in hercountry; so she blew upon a silver whistle that hung around her neck.

At once there came running to her from all directions a packof great wolves. They had long legs and fierce eyes and sharp teeth.

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

"Are you not going to make them your slaves?" asked the leaderof the wolves.

"No," she answered, "one is of tin, and one of straw; one isa girl and another a Lion. None of them is fit to work, so youmay tear them into small pieces."

"Very well," said the wolf, and he dashed away at full speed,followed by the others.

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

"This is my fight," said the Woodman, "so get behind me and Iwill meet them as they come."

He seized his axe, which he had made very sharp, and as theleader of the wolves came on the Tin Woodman swung his arm andchopped the wolf's head from its body, so that it immediately died.As soon as he could raise his axe another wolf came up, and he alsofell under the sharp edge of the Tin Woodman's weapon. There wereforty wolves, and forty times a wolf was killed, so that at lastthey 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 littlegirl was quite frightened when she saw the great pile of shaggywolves, but the Tin Woodman told her all. She thanked him forsaving them and sat down to breakfast, after which they startedagain upon their journey.

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

Straightway 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 tothe strangers; peck out their eyes and tear them to pieces."

The wild crows flew in one great flock toward Dorothy and hercompanions. When the little girl saw them coming she was afraid.

But the Scarecrow said, "This is my battle, so lie down besideme and you will not be harmed."

So they all lay upon the ground except the Scarecrow, and hestood up and stretched out his arms. And when the crows saw himthey were frightened, as these birds always are by scarecrows, anddid 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, who caught it by the headand twisted its neck until it died. And then another crow flew athim, and the Scarecrow twisted its neck also. There were fortycrows, and forty times the Scarecrow twisted a neck, until at lastall were lying dead beside him. Then he called to his companionsto rise, and again they went upon their journey.

When the Wicked Witch looked out again and saw all her crowslying in a heap, she got into a terrible rage, and blew threetimes upon her silver whistle.

Forthwith there was heard a great buzzing in the air, and aswarm of black bees came flying toward her.

"Go to the strangers and sting them to death!" commandedthe Witch, and the bees turned and flew rapidly until they cameto where Dorothy and her friends were walking. But the Woodmanhad seen them coming, and the Scarecrow had decided what to do.

"Take out my straw and scatter it over the little girl and thedog and the Lion," he said to the Woodman, "and the bees cannotsting them." This the Woodman did, and as Dorothy lay close besidethe Lion and held Toto in her arms, the straw covered them entirely.

The bees came and found no one but the Woodman to sting, sothey flew at him and broke off all their stings against the tin,without hurting the Woodman at all. And as bees cannot live whentheir stings are broken that was the end of the black bees, andthey lay scattered thick about the Woodman, like little heaps offine coal.

Then Dorothy and the Lion got up, and the girl helped the TinWoodman put the straw back into the Scarecrow again, until he wasas good as ever. So they started upon their journey once more.

The Wicked Witch was so angry when she saw her black bees inlittle heaps like fine coal that she stamped her foot and tore herhair and gnashed her teeth. And then she called a dozen of herslaves, who were the Winkies, and gave them sharp spears, tellingthem to go to the strangers and destroy them.

The Winkies were not a brave people, but they had to do asthey were told. So they marched away until they came near toDorothy. Then the Lion gave a great roar and sprang towards them,and the poor Winkies were so frightened that they ran back as fastas they could.

When they returned to the castle the Wicked Witch beat themwell with a strap, and sent them back to their work, after whichshe sat down to think what she should do next. She could notunderstand how all her plans to destroy these strangers had failed;but she was a powerful Witch, as well as a wicked one, and she soonmade up her mind how to act.

There was, in her cupboard, a Golden Cap, with a circle ofdiamonds and rubies running round it. This Golden Cap had a charm.Whoever owned it could call three times upon the Winged Monkeys,who would obey any order they were given. But no personcould command these strange creatures more than three times.Twice already the Wicked Witch had used the charm of the Cap.Once was when she had made the Winkies her slaves, and set herselfto rule over their country. The Winged Monkeys had helped herdo this. The second time was when she had fought against theGreat Oz himself, and driven him out of the land of the West.The Winged Monkeys had also helped her in doing this. Only oncemore could she use this Golden Cap, for which reason she did notlike to do so until all her other powers were exhausted. But nowthat her fierce wolves and her wild crows and her stinging bees weregone, and her slaves had been scared away by the Cowardly Lion,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 andplaced it upon her head. Then she stood upon her left foot andsaid 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!"

Now the charm began to work. The sky was darkened, and a lowrumbling sound was heard in the air. There was a rushing of manywings, a great chattering and laughing, and the sun came out of thedark sky to show the Wicked Witch surrounded by a crowd of monkeys,each with a pair of immense and powerful wings on his shoulders.

One, much bigger than the others, seemed to be their leader.He flew close to the Witch and said, "You have called us for thethird and last time. What do you command?"

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

"Your commands shall be obeyed," said the leader. Then, witha great deal of chattering and noise, the Winged Monkeys flew awayto the place where Dorothy and her friends were walking.

Some of the Monkeys seized the Tin Woodman and carried himthrough the air until they were over a country thickly coveredwith sharp rocks. Here they dropped the poor Woodman, who fell agreat distance to the rocks, where he lay so battered and dentedthat he could neither move nor groan.

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

The remaining Monkeys threw pieces of stout rope aroundthe Lion and wound many coils about his body and head and legs,until he was unable to bite or scratch or struggle in any way.Then they lifted him up and flew away with him to the Witch's castle,where he was placed 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 inher arms, watching the sad fate of her comrades and thinking itwould soon be her turn. The leader of the Winged Monkeys flew upto her, his long, hairy arms stretched out and his ugly facegrinning terribly; but he saw the mark of the Good Witch's kissupon her forehead and stopped short, motioning the others not totouch her.

"We dare not harm this little girl," he said to them, "for sheis protected by the Power of Good, and that is greater than thePower of Evil. All we can do is to carry her to the castle of theWicked Witch and leave her there."

So, carefully and gently, they lifted Dorothy in theirarms and carried her swiftly through the air until they cameto the castle, where they set her down upon the front doorstep.Then the leader said to the Witch:

"We have obeyed you as far as we were able. The Tin Woodman andthe 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, with much laughing and chatteringand noise, flew into the air and were soon out of sight.

The Wicked Witch was both surprised and worried when she sawthe mark on Dorothy's forehead, for she knew well that neither theWinged Monkeys nor she, herself, dare hurt the girl in any way.She looked down at Dorothy's feet, and seeing the Silver Shoes,began to tremble with fear, for she knew what a powerful charmbelonged to them. At first the Witch was tempted to run away fromDorothy; but she happened to look into the child's eyes and sawhow simple the soul behind them was, and that the little girl didnot know of the wonderful power the Silver Shoes gave her. So theWicked Witch laughed to herself, and thought, "I can still makeher my slave, for she does not know how to use her power."Then she said to Dorothy, harshly and severely:

"Come with me; and see that you mind everything I tell you,for if you do not I will make an end of you, as I did of the TinWoodman and the Scarecrow."

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

Dorothy went to work meekly, with her mind made up to work ashard as she could; for she was glad the Wicked Witch had decidednot to kill her.

With Dorothy hard at work, the Witch thought she would go intothe courtyard and harness the Cowardly Lion like a horse; it wouldamuse her, she was sure, to make him draw her chariot whenever shewished to go to drive. But as she opened the gate the Lion gave aloud roar and bounded at her so fiercely that the Witch was afraid,and ran out and shut the gate again.

"If I cannot harness you," said the Witch to the Lion,speaking through the bars of the gate, "I can starve you.You shall have nothing to eat until you do as I wish."

So after that she took no food to the imprisoned Lion;but every day she came to the gate at noon and asked, "Are youready to be harnessed like a horse?"

And the Lion would answer, "No. If you come in this yard, Iwill bite you."

The reason the Lion did not have to do as the Witch wished wasthat every night, while the woman was asleep, Dorothy carried himfood from the cupboard. After he had eaten he would lie down onhis bed of straw, and Dorothy would lie beside him and put herhead on his soft, shaggy mane, while they talked of their troublesand tried to plan some way to escape. But they could find no wayto get out of the castle, for it was constantly guarded by theyellow Winkies, who were the slaves of the Wicked Witch andtoo afraid of her not to do as she told them.

The girl had to work hard during the day, and often the Witchthreatened to beat her with the same old umbrella she alwayscarried in her hand. But, in truth, she did not dare to strikeDorothy, because of the mark upon her forehead. The child did notknow this, and was full of fear for herself and Toto. Once theWitch struck Toto a blow with her umbrella and the brave littledog flew at her and bit her leg in return. The Witch did notbleed where she was bitten, for she was so wicked that the bloodin her had dried up many years before.

Dorothy's life became very sad as she grew to understand thatit would be harder than ever to get back to Kansas and Aunt Em again.Sometimes she would cry bitterly for hours, with Toto sitting at herfeet and looking into her face, whining dismally to show how sorryhe was for his little mistress. Toto did not really care whetherhe was in Kansas or the Land of Oz so long as Dorothy was with him;but he knew the little girl was unhappy, and that made him unhappy too.

Now the Wicked Witch had a great longing to have for her ownthe Silver Shoes which the girl always wore. Her bees and hercrows and her wolves were lying in heaps and drying up, and shehad used up all the power of the Golden Cap; but if she couldonly get hold of the Silver Shoes, they would give her more powerthan all the other things she had lost. She watched Dorothy carefully,to see if she ever took off her shoes, thinking she might steal them.But the child was so proud of her pretty shoes that she never tookthem off except at night and when she took her bath. The Witch wastoo much afraid of the dark to dare go in Dorothy's room at nightto take the shoes, and her dread of water was greater than herfear of the dark, so she never came near when Dorothy was bathing.Indeed, the old Witch never touched water, nor ever let watertouch her in any way.

But the wicked creature was very cunning, and she finally thought ofa trick that would give her what she wanted. She placed a bar of ironin the middle of the kitchen floor, and then by her magic arts made theiron invisible to human eyes. So that when Dorothy walked across the floorshe stumbled over the bar, not being able to see it, and fell at full length.She was not much hurt, but in her fall one of the Silver Shoes came off; andbefore she could reach it, the Witch had snatched it away and put it on herown 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 oftheir charm, and Dorothy could not use it against her, even had sheknown 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, andnot yours."

"You are a wicked creature!" cried Dorothy. "You have no rightto 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 bucketof water that stood near and dashed it over the Witch, wetting herfrom head to foot.

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

"See what you have done!" she screamed. "In a minute I shall melt away."

"I'm very sorry, indeed," said Dorothy, who was truly frightened tosee the Witch actually melting away like brown sugar before her very eyes.

"Didn't you know water would be the end of me?" asked theWitch, in a wailing, despairing voice.

"Of course not," answered Dorothy. "How should I?"

"Well, in a few minutes I shall be all melted, and you willhave the castle to yourself. I have been wicked in my day, but Inever thought a little girl like you would ever be able to melt meand end my wicked deeds. Look out--here I go!"

With these words the Witch fell down in a brown, melted,shapeless mass and began to spread over the clean boards of thekitchen 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 silvershoe, which was all that was left of the old woman, she cleanedand dried it with a cloth, and put it on her foot again. Then,being at last free to do as she chose, she ran out to thecourtyard to tell the Lion that the Wicked Witch of the West hadcome to an end, and that they were no longer prisoners in astrange land.