volunteers, nearly a hundred offered to go, so
great was their confidence in the little man who had saved their
comrades.

The Wizard selected a dozen that seemed intelligent and good-tempered,
and then he opened his black bag and took out a queerly shaped dish
that was silver on the outside and gold on the inside. Into this dish
he poured a powder and set fire to it. It made a thick smoke that
quite enveloped the twelve monkeys, as well as the form of the Wizard,
but when the smoke cleared away the dish had been changed to a golden
cage with silver bars, and the twelve monkeys had become about three
inches high and were all seated comfortably inside the cage.

The thousands of hairy animals who had witnessed this act of magic were
much astonished and applauded the Wizard by barking aloud and shaking
the limbs of the trees in which they sat. Dorothy said: "That was a
fine trick, Wizard!" and the Gray Ape remarked: "You are certainly the
most wonderful magician in all the Land of Oz!"

"Oh, no," modestly replied the little man. "Glinda's magic is better
than mine, but mine seems good enough to use on ordinary occasions.
And now, Rango, we will say good-bye, and I promise to return your
monkeys as happy and safe as they are now."

The Wizard rode on the back of the Hungry Tiger and carried the cage of
monkeys very carefully, so as not to joggle them. Dorothy rode on the
back of the Cowardly Lion, and the Glass Cat trotted, as before, to
show them the way.

Gugu the King crouched upon a log and watched them go, but as he bade
them farewell, the enormous Leopard said:

"I know now that you are the friends of beasts and that the forest
people may trust you. Whenever the Wizard of Oz and Princess Dorothy
enter the Forest of Gugu hereafter, they will be as welcome and as safe
with us as ever they are in the Emerald City."

17. A Remarkable Journey

"You see," explained the Glass Cat, "that Magic Isle where Trot and
Cap'n Bill are stuck is also in this Gillikin Country--over at the east
side of it, and it's no farther to go across-lots from here than it is
from here to the Emerald City. So we'll save time by cutting across
the mountains."

"Are you sure you know the way?" asked Dorothy.

"I know all the Land of Oz better than any other living creature knows
it," asserted the Glass Cat.

"Go ahead, then, and guide us," said the Wizard. "We've left our poor
friends helpless too long already, and th