ld, as you can well imagine. And
when their leader approached our heroes, he repeated the words "Dinnah
iss serffed," and licked his lips with anticipation.

He spoke again in that very strange accent, this time addressing
Elephant: "Vatt iss a madder vi' chew? You nebber seen land sharks
'afore?"

"N-N-N-No, w-w-w-we h-h-h-haven't," stuttered Elephant.

"Habben chew?" the leader said, winking at his friends. "Den ah vill
share some knowletch vi' chew to take vi' chew to da hereafter. (The
other sharks roared with laughter at this). Ven our ocean dried oop
millons off yearss ago, all da fishies died, includen uss sharks--except
for two, zat iss. Undt dare chilluns ver born vi' liddle leggies. Ve
arrda descendants off dose two, undt ve haff effolved over da yearss to
our present selfs. Fully adapted to da land. Undt ve haff kept alive all
deess yearss on a steady diet off hunsuspecting helaffant. So vat chew
'tink 'bout zat?"

"N-n-not t-t-too m-m-much," answered Elephant in a high pitched voice.
"I-I mean, I d-d-d-don't know wh-what t-to think."

"Tell chew vat ve do," said the shark. "Chew seem like nice a guyss. Ve
no eat chew tonight. Ve eat chew tomorrow--fer break'ast."

[Illustration: Land Sharks]

All the sharks laughed uproariously, whereupon they surrounded our
heroes and promptly lay back down in the sand and went to sleep.

"Well," said Watts. "This is a fine how-do-you-do. But I don't think we
have to worry about these guys too much. I seriously doubt they could
eat glass, so we can protect the rest of you." He smiled a very sharp
toothy smile. "Besides, they seem to be very lazy. It isn't like they've
enclosed us in a cage or anything like that. What's to stop us from
simply slipping out between two of them and walking away?"

"Ahh am," came a rumbling voice. "Ahh am ze vatchman uff ze Land Sharks.
But chew do have a point. Ve cannot eat glass. Ve can break it, but ve
can't eat it. Chew are uff no value to us. Ve vill only be able to eat
ze meat creatchures. Chew that are a made from glass may go."

Watts and his friends made their most ferocious faces at the Land
Sharks. "You will allow us all to go!" said Watts to the Shark. "You
will not hold any of us back! Besides, we have with us the Queen of Oz.
Your own Queen, for crying out loud!"

"Chew does have some pretty teeth, don' chew?" said the watchman. "But I
am not afraid of chew, zo chew should leave now. I do not know chust
'zactly vat a