The shaggy man perched Button-Bright
on his shoulders and ran after them. They moved so quickly and their
escape was so wholly unexpected that they had almost reached the
bridge when one of the Scoodlers looked out of his house and saw them.
The creature raised a shrill cry that brought all of its fellows
bounding out of the numerous doors, and at once they started in chase.
Dorothy and Polly had reached the bridge and crossed it when the
Scoodlers began throwing their heads. One of the queer missiles
struck the shaggy man on his back and nearly knocked him over; but he
was at the mouth of the cave now, so he set down Button-Bright and
told the boy to run across the bridge to Dorothy.
Then the shaggy man turned around and faced his enemies, standing just
outside the opening, and as fast as they threw their heads at him he
caught them and tossed them into the black gulf below. The headless
bodies of the foremost Scoodlers kept the others from running close
up, but they also threw their heads in an effort to stop the escaping
prisoners. The shaggy man caught them all and sent them whirling down
into the black gulf. Among them he noticed the crimson and yellow head
of the Queen, and this he tossed after the others with right good will.
Presently every Scoodler of the lot had thrown its head, and every
head was down in the deep gulf, and now the helpless bodies of the
creatures were mixed together in the cave and wriggling around in a
vain attempt to discover what had become of their heads.
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