ed surface, and on this sat the stately Leopard Gugu, who
was King of the Forest. On the ground beneath him squatted Bru the
Bear, Loo the Unicorn, and Rango the Gray Ape, the King's three
Counselors, and in front of them stood the two strange beasts who had
called themselves Li-Mon-Eags, but were really the transformations of
Ruggedo the Nome, and Kiki Aru the Hyup.

Then came the beasts--rows and rows and rows of them! The smallest
beasts were nearest the King's rock throne; then there were wolves and
foxes, lynxes and hyenas, and the like; behind them were gathered the
monkey tribes, who were hard to keep in order because they teased the
other animals and were full of mischievous tricks. Back of the monkeys
were the pumas, jaguars, tigers and lions, and their kind; next the
bears, all sizes and colors; after them bisons, wild asses, zebras and
unicorns; farther on the rhinoceri and hippopotami, and at the far edge
of the forest, close to the trees that shut in the clearing, was a row
of thick-skinned elephants, still as statues but with eyes bright and
intelligent.

Many other kinds of beasts, too numerous to mention, were there, and
some were unlike any beasts we see in the menageries and zoos in our
country. Some were from the mountains west of the forest, and some
from the plains at the east, and some from the river; but all present
acknowledged the leadership of Gugu, who for many years had ruled them
wisely and forced all to obey the laws.

When the beasts had taken their places in the clearing and the rising
sun was shooting its first bright rays over the treetops, King Gugu
rose on his throne. The Leopard's giant form, towering above all the
others, caused a sudden hush to fall on the assemblage.

"Brothers," he said in his deep voice, "a stranger has come among us, a
beast of curious form who is a great magician and is able to change the
shapes of men or beasts at his will. This stranger has come to us,
with another of his kind, from out of the sky, to warn us of a danger
which threatens us all, and to offer us a way to escape from that
danger. He says he is our friend, and he has proved to me and to my
Counselors his magic powers. Will you listen to what he has to say to
you--to the message he has brought from the sky?"

"Let him speak!" came in a great roar from the great company of
assembled beasts.

So Ruggedo the Nome sprang upon the flat rock beside Gugu the King, and
another roar, gentle