ped down
and picked up a loose stone, which he threw at the creatures to scare
them from the path.

At this the Scoodlers raised a howl. Two of them picked their heads
from their shoulders and hurled them at the shaggy man with such force
that he fell over in a heap, greatly astonished. The two now ran
forward with swift leaps, caught up their heads, and put them on again,
after which they sprang back to their positions on the rocks.

10. Escaping the Soup-Kettle

The shaggy man got up and felt of himself to see if he was hurt; but he
was not. One of the heads had struck his breast and the other his left
shoulder; yet though they had knocked him down, the heads were not hard
enough to bruise him.

"Come on," he said firmly; "we've got to get out of here some way," and
forward he started again.

The Scoodlers began yelling and throwing their heads in great numbers
at our frightened friends. The shaggy man was knocked over again, and
so was Button-Bright, who kicked his heels against the ground and
howled as loud as he could, although he was not hurt a bit. One head
struck Toto, who first yelped and then grabbed the head by an ear and
started running away with it.

The Scoodlers who had thrown their heads began to scramble down and run
to pick them up, with wonderful quickness; but the one whose head Toto
had stolen found it hard to get it back again. The head couldn't see
the body with either pair of its eyes, because the dog was in the way,
so the headless Scoodler stumbled around over the rocks and tripped on
them more than once in its effort to regain its top. Toto was trying
to get outside the rocks and roll the head down the hill; but some of
the other Scoodlers came to the rescue of their unfortunate comrade and
pelted the dog with their own heads until he was obliged to drop his
burden and hurry back to Dorothy.

The little girl and the Rainbow's Daughter had both escaped the shower
of heads, but they saw now that it would be useless to try to run away
from the dreadful Scoodlers.

"We may as well submit," declared the shaggy man, in a rueful voice, as
he got upon his feet again. He turned toward their foes and asked:

"What do you want us to do?"

"Come!" they cried, in a triumphant chorus, and at once sprang from the
rocks and surrounded their captives on all sides. One funny thing
about the Scoodlers was they could walk in either direction, coming or
going, without turning around;