ures down the street. Jim had to be careful not to step upon the
tiny piglets, who scampered under his feet grunting and squealing, while
Eureka, snarling and biting at the thorns pushed toward her, also tried
to protect the pretty little things from injury. Slowly but steadily the
heartless Mangaboos drove them on, until they had passed through the
city and the gardens and come to the broad plains leading to the
mountain.

"What does all this mean, anyhow?" asked the horse, jumping to escape a
thorn.

"Why, they are driving us toward the Black Pit, into which they
threatened to cast us," replied the kitten. "If I were as big as you
are, Jim, I'd fight these miserable turnip-roots!"

"What would you do?" enquired Jim.

"I'd kick out with those long legs and iron-shod hoofs."

"All right," said the horse; "I'll do it."

An instant later he suddenly backed toward the crowd of Mangaboos and
kicked out his hind legs as hard as he could. A dozen of them smashed
together and tumbled to the ground, and seeing his success Jim kicked
again and again, charging into the vegetable crowd, knocking them in
all directions and sending the others scattering to escape his iron
heels. Eureka helped him by flying into the faces of the enemy and
scratching and biting furiously, and the kitten ruined so many vegetable
complexions that the Mangaboos feared her as much as they did the horse.

But the foes were too many to be repulsed for long. They tired Jim and
Eureka out, and although the field of battle was thickly covered with
mashed and disabled Mangaboos, our animal friends had to give up at last
and allow themselves to be driven to the mountain.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER 7.

INTO THE BLACK PIT AND OUT AGAIN

When they came to the mountain it proved to be a rugged, towering chunk
of deep green glass, and looked dismal and forbidding in the extreme.
Half way up the steep was a yawning cave, black as night beyond the
point where the rainbow rays of the colored suns reached into it.

The Mangaboos drove the horse and the kitten and the piglets into this
dark hole and then, having pushed the buggy in after them--for it seemed
some of them had dragged it all the way from the domed hall--they began
to pile big glass rocks within the entrance, so that the prisoners could
not get out again.

"This is dreadful!" groaned Jim. "It will be about the end of our
adventures, I guess."

"If the Wizard was here," said one of the