ear him a great tree
which had a hollow trunk, and there was a round hole in this tree,
about three feet above the ground. The Wizard Fox decided it would be
safer for him to hide inside the hollow tree, so he sprang into the
hole and crouched down in the hollow, so that his eyes just came to the
edge of the hole by which he had entered, and from here he watched the
forms of the two Li-Mon-Eags.

"This is my plan," said the Nome to Kiki, speaking so low that the
Wizard could only hear the rumble of his voice. "Since you can
transform anything into any form you wish, we will transform these
monkeys into an army, and with that army we will conquer the Oz people."

"The monkeys won't make much of an army," objected Kiki.

"We need a great army, but not a numerous one," responded the Nome.
"You will transform each monkey into a giant man, dressed in a fine
uniform and armed with a sharp sword. There are fifty monkeys over
there and fifty giants would make as big an army as we need."

"What will they do with the swords?" asked Kiki. "Nothing can kill the
Oz people."

"True," said Ruggedo. "The Oz people cannot be killed, but they can be
cut into small pieces, and while every piece will still be alive, we
can scatter the pieces around so that they will be quite helpless.
Therefore, the Oz people will be afraid of the swords of our army, and
we will conquer them with ease."

"That seems like a good idea," replied the boy, approvingly. "And in
such a case, we need not bother with the other beasts of the forest."

"No; you have frightened the beasts, and they would no longer consent
to assist us in conquering Oz. But those monkeys are foolish
creatures, and once they are transformed to Giants, they will do just
as we say and obey our commands. Can you transform them all at once?"

"No, I must take one at a time," said Kiki. "But the fifty
transformations can be made in an hour or so. Stay here, Ruggedo, and
I will change the first monkey--that one at the left, on the end of the
limb--into a Giant with a sword."

"Where are you going?" asked the Nome.

"I must not speak the Magic Word in the presence of another person,"
declared Kiki, who was determined not to allow his treacherous
companion to learn his secret, "so I will go where you cannot hear me."

Ruggedo the Nome was disappointed, but he hoped still to catch the boy
unawares and surprise the Magic Word. So he merely nodded his lion
head, and Kiki go