"I wish you'd never wished us here.
This castle's full of spooks, I fear!"
finished the Patch Work Girl, shaking her finger reproachfully at the Wizard.
"Fear nothing," boomed Sir Hokus grandly, "I will protect you." Putting his mailed shoulder to the doors, he pressed with all his might. The bolts had evidently not been drawn and when the three little girls and the Wizard added their strength to his, the doors flew open so suddenly they all tumbled through together. Three jack rabbits and a tiny fawn leaped through a broken window pane as the doors crashed open and several bats, shaken from their hold on the beamed ceiling by the jar, began to circle round and round, screeching dismally. The hall had once been furnished with great splendor and magnificence, but now everything was covered with cobwebs, dust and decay. The dim green light filtering in through the vine covered windows made everything seem more ghastly still.
"I wanna go home!" whispered Scraps plaintively.
"Oh!" wailed Betsy Bobbin, hiding her face in the Scarecrow's coat, "I don't like this."
"Shoo!" coughed the Scarecrow, stamping his foot at a flock of mice that came scurrying across the floor and whirling his hat about his head to keep off the bats. "Shoo, I tell you!"
"What do you s'pose anyone wanted us to come here for?" groaned Trot, clinging nervously to Scraps.
"Well, there must be some reason," answered Ozma thoughtfully. "I seem to remember this castle." Disregarding the grime and dust, the lovely little Queen walked slowly across the hall and sat down on a golden chest beside the long table. Sir Hokus, finding nothing better to fight than mice and bats, began briskly to clear the room of the pests, while Trot, Betsy and the Patch Work Girl tiptoed here and there talking in tense whispers, for in the silence of the deserted castle their words echoed and re-echoed unpleasantly. Having assured themselves that there was nothing of interest in the great hall, Sir Hokus, the Wizard and the Scarecrow went bravely off to examine the rest of the castle.
"I wish they'd come back," whispered Trot, after they'd been gone about five minutes. "Oooh, what's that?"