Chapter Eleven. The Conquest of the Skeezers

Glinda of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

Queen Coo-ee-oh dropped the rope, tottered and fell headlong into
the water, sinking beneath the surface, while the Skeezers in the
submarine assist her and only stared at the ripples in the water
where she had disappeared. A moment later there arose to the surface
a beautiful White Swan. This Swan was of large size, very gracefully
formed, and scattered all over its white feathers were tiny diamonds,
so thickly placed that as the rays of the morning sun fell upon them
the entire body of the Swan glistened like one brilliant diamond. The
head of the Diamond Swan had a bill of polished gold and its eyes
were two sparkling amethysts.

"Hooray!" cried the Su-dic, dancing up and down with wicked
glee. "My poor wife, Rora, is avenged at last. You made her a Golden
Pig, Coo-ee-oh, and now I have made you a Diamond Swan. Float on your
lake forever, if you like, for your web feet can do no more magic and
you are as powerless as the Pig you made of my wife!

"Villain! Scoundrel!" croaked the Diamond Swan. "You will be
punished for this. Oh, what a fool I was to let you enchant me!

"A fool you were, and a fool you are!" laughed the Su-dic,
dancing madly in his delight. And then he carelessly tipped over the
other copper vessel with his heel and its contents spilled on the
sands and were lost to the last drop.

The Su-dic stopped short and looked at the overturned vessel
with a rueful countenance.

"That's too bad -- too bad!" he exclaimed sorrowfully. "I've
lost all the poison I had to kill the fishes with, and I can't make
any more because only my wife knew the secret of it, and she is now a
foolish Pig and has forgotten all her magic."

"Very well," said the Diamond Swan scornfully, as she floated
upon the water and swam gracefully here and there. I'm glad to see
you are foiled. Your punishment is just beginning, for although you
have enchanted me and taken away my powers of sorcery you have still
the three magic fishes to deal with, and they'll destroy you in time,
mark my words."

The Su-dic stared at the Swan a moment. Then he yelled to his
men:

"Shoot her! Shoot the saucy bird!"

They let fly some arrows at the Diamond Swan, but she dove under
the water and the missiles fell harmless. When Coo-ce-oh rose to the
surface she was far from the shore and she swiftly swam across the
lake to where no arrows or spears could reach her.

The Su-dic rubbed his chin and thought what to do next. Near by
floated the submarine in which the Queen had come, but the Skeezers
who were in it were puzzled what to do with themselves. Perhaps they
were not sorry their cruel mistress had been transformed into a
Diamond Swan, but the transformation had left them quite helpless.
The under-water boat was not operated by machinery, but by certain
mystic words uttered by Coo-ee-oh. They didn't know how to submerge
it, or how to make the water-tight shield cover them again, or how to
make the boat go back to the castle, or make it enter the little
basement room where it was usually kept. As a matter of fact, they
were now shut out of their village under the Great Dome and could not
get back again. So one of the men called to the Supreme Dictator of
the Flatheads, saying:

"Please make us prisoners and take us to your mountain, and feed
and keep us, for we have nowhere to go."

Then the Su-dic laughed and answered:

"Not so. I can't be bothered by caring for a lot of stupid
Skeezers. Stay where you are, or go wherever you please, so long as
you keep away from our mountain." He turned to his men and added: "We
have conquered Queen Coo-ee-oh and made her a helpless swan. The
Skeezers are under water and may stay there. So, having won the war,
let us go home again and make merry and feast, having after many
years proved the Flatheads to be greater and more powerful than the
Skeezers."

So the Flatheads marched away and passed through the row of
palms and went back to their mountain, where the Su-dic and a few of
his officers feasted and all the others were forced to wait on
them.

"I'm sorry we couldn't have roast pig," said the Su- dic, "but
as the only pig we have is made of gold, we can't eat her. Also the
Golden Pig happens to be my wife, and even were she not gold I am
sure she would be too tough to eat."