ing-jack like that, with two
faces."

"Was it alive?" asked Button-Bright.

"No," replied the shaggy man; "it worked on strings, and was made of
wood."

"Wonder if this works with strings," said Dorothy; but Polychrome cried
"Look!" for another creature just like the first had suddenly appeared
sitting on another rock, its black side toward them. The two twisted
their heads around and showed a black face on the white side of one and
a white face on the black side of the other.

[Illustration]

"How curious," said Polychrome; "and how loose their heads seem to be!
Are they friendly to us, do you think?"

"Can't tell, Polly," replied Dorothy. "Let's ask 'em."

The creatures flopped first one way and then the other, showing black or
white by turns; and now another joined them, appearing on another rock.
Our friends had come to a little hollow in the hills, and the place
where they now stood was surrounded by jagged peaks of rock, except
where the road ran through.

"Now there are four of them," said the shaggy man.

"Five," declared Polychrome.

"Six," said Dorothy.

"Lots of 'em!" cried Button-Bright; and so there were--quite a row of
the two-sided black and white creatures sitting on the rocks all around.

Toto stopped barking and ran between Dorothy's feet, where he crouched
down as if afraid. The creatures did not look pleasant or friendly, to
be sure, and the shaggy man's donkey face became solemn, indeed.

"Ask 'em who they are, and what they want," whispered Dorothy; so the
shaggy man called out in a loud voice:

"Who are you?"

"Scoodlers!" they yelled in chorus, their voices sharp and shrill.

"What do you want?" called the shaggy man.

"You!" they yelled, pointing their thin fingers at the group; and they
all flopped around, so they were white, and then all flopped back again,
so they were black.

"But what do you want us for?" asked the shaggy man, uneasily.

"Soup!" they all shouted, as if with one voice.

[Illustration: "YOU!" THEY YELLED]

"Goodness me!" said Dorothy, trembling a little; "the Scoodlers must be
reg'lar cannibals."

"Don't want to be soup," protested Button-Bright, beginning to cry.

"Hush, dear," said the little girl, trying to comfort him; "we don't any
of us want to be soup. But don't worry; the shaggy man will take care of
us."

"Will he?" asked Polychrome, who did not like the Scoodlers at all, and
kept close to Dorothy.

"I'll try," promised the shaggy ma