Pirates in Oz by L. Frank Baum

Author:L. Frank Baum [Baum, L. Frank]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Young Adult, Oz, Fiction
Published: 2011-03-13T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

The No Bodies

NO land had been sighted for two days but Peter found it vastly exciting skimming over the mountainous green waves of the Nonestic Ocean. There was enough to do with the sails alone to keep four or five able-bodied seamen busy, and all on board the pirate's ship worked as they had never worked before. But not for anything in the world or Oz would Peter have traded his position as cabin boy and mate on the Crescent Moon. Sometimes, when the sea was calm and everything shipshape, Roger would read them stories from Ato's books or the volumes they had brought from Shell City. Some-times Samuel Salt would tell of his many strange voyages or Peter would relate his adventures in Oz.

"It was on this very ocean that I first met the Gnome King," mused Peter, as he and Samuel were mending a sail one morning. "He was on a rocky island and I was dropped there by a balloon bird. Then there was a sea-quake and we got off the island on an old pirate ship that was thrown up from the bottom of the sea. Did you ever know Polacky, Samuel?" Samuel Salt shook his head thoughtfully.

"Well, anyway," went on Peter, "it was his ship, but it was pretty well done for, so we just drifted till we came to Ev. Then with a magic cloak of invisibility that we found on the ship, Rug flew to the Emerald City and stole back his magic belt. I fol-lowed him as quickly as I could and just as he was sending Ozma and everybody to the bottom of the Nonestic Ocean, I was lucky enough to hit him with a silence stone I had found on the pirate ship. So of course he couldn't say another word. The Wizard made him visible and that was that! Wonder what he’s doing now? Boy, he was a bad one!"

"What happened the next time you came to Oz?" inquired Ato, who was sitting on a pile of life preservers, shelling peas.

"Oh, last time I met Jack Pumpkinhead and an Iffin and we flew over the whole country on its back and captured the Baron of Baffleburg," explained Peter carelessly. "And, man! what do you think I found? A magic dinner bell. All you had to do was ring it and a slave would bring you a tray full of wonderful food"

"That would be a right handy thing to have on a voyage," sighed ato, wiping his royal brow on the sleeve of his ragged shirt. "we've about done with the stuff we brought from shell city, Samuel, and there's nothing for dinner but wilted peas and bad peaches."

"Sounds all right to me," said Samuel Salt, looking cross-eyed as he threaded his needle. "Anyway, we'll be heading in somewhere soon. Ahoy, Roger! Anything ahead?" Roger, who for the present was steersman, shook his head without looking around.

"Water, water everywhere, and not a sign of land, Oh, for a teas, oh for a teas, a teaspoonful of sand!"

croaked the Read Bird gloomily.

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