this time, showed how astonished the beasts were
at the sight of his curious form. His lion's face was surrounded by a
mane of pure white hair; his eagle's wings were attached to the
shoulders of his monkey body and were so long that they nearly touched
the ground; he had powerful arms and legs in addition to the wings, and
at the end of his long, strong tail was a golden ball. Never had any
beast beheld such a curious creature before, and so the very sight of
the stranger, who was said to be a great magician, filled all present
with awe and wonder.

Kiki stayed down below and, half hidden by the shelf of rock, was
scarcely noticed. The boy realized that the old Nome was helpless
without his magic power, but he also realized that Ruggedo was the best
talker. So he was willing the Nome should take the lead.

"Beasts of the Forest of Gugu," began Ruggedo the Nome, "my comrade and
I are your friends. We are magicians, and from our home in the sky we
can look down into the Land of Oz and see everything that is going on.
Also we can hear what the people below us are saying. That is how we
heard Ozma, who rules the Land of Oz, say to her people: 'The beasts in
the Forest of Gugu are lazy and are of no use to us. Let us go to
their forest and make them all our prisoners. Let us tie them with
ropes, and beat them with sticks, until they work for us and become our
willing slaves.' And when the people heard Ozma of Oz say this, they
were glad and raised a great shout and said: 'We will do it! We will
make the beasts of the Forest of Gugu our slaves!'"

The wicked old Nome could say no more, just then, for such a fierce
roar of anger rose from the multitude of beasts that his voice was
drowned by the clamor. Finally the roar died away, like distant
thunder, and Ruggedo the Nome went on with his speech.

"Having heard the Oz people plot against your liberty, we watched to
see what they would do, and saw them all begin making ropes--ropes long
and short--with which to snare our friends the beasts. You are angry,
but we also were angry, for when the Oz people became the enemies of
the beasts they also became our enemies; for we, too, are beasts,
although we live in the sky. And my comrade and I said: 'We will save
our friends and have revenge on the Oz people,' and so we came here to
tell you of your danger and of our plan to save you."

"We can save ourselves," cried an old Elephant. "We can fight."

"The Oz peo