The Oz Series
Chapter 70
Part of the Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz: The Underground World arc.
What happens
The train from 'Frisco arrives very late at Hugson's Siding, reaching the open shed station at five o'clock in the gray dawn instead of midnight. A little girl carrying a wicker suitcase, a newspaper-covered birdcage, and a parasol steps off; the conductor helps her down and the engineer resumes the slow, cautious journey, explaining the delay was caused by the ground shaking and trembling all night from earthquakes that threatened to spread the rails. The girl finds the bare shed deserted but discovers a big, bony, tall horse with prominent ribs, an oversized head, a short scraggly tail, and a mended harness tied to a tree near a nearly new buggy with a shiny top. Inside the buggy she finds a boy asleep and pokes him awake with her parasol.
The boy identifies the girl as Dorothy Gale and confirms he has come to take her to Hugson's Ranch. He stows her suitcase and birdcage, and Dorothy explains the cage holds not canary-birds but her kitten Eureka, named because 'Eureka' means 'I have found it,' as Uncle Henry told her. The boy shakes the reins and says 'Gid-dap,' but the horse does not move; only after Dorothy suggests untying the horse does the boy, admitting he is half asleep, free the animal, whom he calls Jim. Jim then backs from the tree, turns, and trots down the sandy road. The boy says he waited five hours at the station, and Dorothy mentions the earthquakes; he replies Californians are used to such things. He reveals his uncle Bill Hugson married Uncle Henry's wife's sister, making them second cousins, and that he works on the ranch for six dollars a month and board. His name is Zebediah, called Zeb.
Dorothy explains she went to Australia with Uncle Henry, arrived in San Francisco a week ago, and stayed in the city with friends while Uncle Henry went to Hugson's Ranch, and that she and Uncle Henry must start back for Kansas the next day after their long absence. As Zeb starts to speak, the buggy sways dangerously, the earth rises, and a wide crack opens beside them and closes again; Zeb, white-faced, calls it an awful big quake that almost got them. The horse Jim stops firm as a rock and only reluctantly moves on after being whipped. Neither child speaks as the earth shakes repeatedly, Jim trembling and foaming, the sky darkening and the wind making sobbing sounds.
Suddenly a rending sound splits the earth into another great crack directly beneath the horse, and with a wild neigh of terror Jim falls into the pit, drawing the buggy and its occupants after him. Dorothy and Zeb grab the buggy top as blackness engulfs them; they wait in breathless silence to be crushed against jagged rocks or buried as the earth closes. The horrible sensation of falling, the darkness, and terrifying noises overwhelm Dorothy, who loses consciousness for a few moments, while Zeb, badly frightened but not fainting, clings to the buggy seat expecting each moment to be his last.
Who is in play
- Dorothy
- Zeb
- Jim
- Kansas
- Uncle Henry
- Eureka
- Australia
- Uncle Bill Hugson
- California
- San Francisco
- Hugson's Ranch
- Hugson's Siding