ted the boy,
scornfully.

"No; that's true," admitted Ruggedo, and then he rubbed his forehead
and stroked his long pointed beard and thought some more.

"Ah, now I have the idea!" he declared. "I suppose you can transform
us into beasts as well as birds?"

"Of course."

"And can you make a bird a beast, and a beast a bird again, without
taking a human form in between?"

"Certainly," said Kiki. "I can transform myself or others into
anything that can talk. There's a magic word that must be spoken in
connection with the transformations, and as beasts and birds and
dragons and fishes can talk in Oz, we may become any of these we desire
to. However, if I transformed myself into a tree, I would always
remain a tree, because then I could not utter the magic word to change
the transformation."

"I see; I see," said Ruggedo, nodding his bushy, white head until the
point of his hair waved back and forth like a pendulum. "That fits in
with my idea, exactly. Now, listen, and I'll explain to you my plan.
We'll fly to Oz as birds and settle in one of the thick forests in the
Gillikin Country. There you will transform us into powerful beasts,
and as Glinda doesn't keep any track of the doings of beasts we can act
without being discovered."

"But how can two beasts raise an army to conquer the powerful people of
Oz?" inquired Kiki.

"That's easy. But not an army of PEOPLE, mind you. That would be
quickly discovered. And while we are in Oz you and I will never resume
our human forms until we've conquered the country and destroyed Glinda,
and Ozma, and the Wizard, and Dorothy, and all the rest, and so have
nothing more to fear from them."

"It is impossible to kill anyone in the Land of Oz," declared Kiki.

"It isn't necessary to kill the Oz people," rejoined Ruggedo.

"I'm afraid I don't understand you," objected the boy. "What will
happen to the Oz people, and what sort of an army could we get
together, except of people?"

"I'll tell you. The forests of Oz are full of beasts. Some of them,
in the far-away places, are savage and cruel, and would gladly follow a
leader as savage as themselves. They have never troubled the Oz people
much, because they had no leader to urge them on, but we will tell them
to help us conquer Oz and as a reward we will transform all the beasts
into men and women, and let them live in the houses and enjoy all the
good things; and we will transform all the people of Oz into beast