icking and even Eureka
assisted when she leaped bodily upon the Gargoyles and scratched and bit
at them like a wild-cat.

But all this bravery amounted to nothing at all. The wooden things wound
their long arms around Zeb and the Wizard and held them fast. Dorothy
was captured in the same way, and numbers of the Gargoyles clung to
Jim's legs, so weighting him down that the poor beast was helpless.
Eureka made a desperate dash to escape and scampered along the ground
like a streak; but a grinning Gargoyle flew after her and grabbed her
before she had gone very far.

All of them expected nothing less than instant death; but to their
surprise the wooden creatures flew into the air with them and bore them
far away, over miles and miles of wooden country, until they came to a
wooden city. The houses of this city had many corners, being square and
six-sided and eight-sided. They were tower-like in shape and the best of
them seemed old and weather-worn; yet all were strong and substantial.

To one of these houses which had neither doors nor windows, but only one
broad opening far up underneath the roof, the prisoners were brought by
their captors. The Gargoyles roughly pushed them into the opening, where
there was a platform, and then flew away and left them. As they had no
wings the strangers could not fly away, and if they jumped down from
such a height they would surely be killed. The creatures had sense
enough to reason that way, and the only mistake they made was in
supposing the earth people were unable to overcome such ordinary
difficulties.

Jim was brought with the others, although it took a good many Gargoyles
to carry the big beast through the air and land him on the high
platform, and the buggy was thrust in after him because it belonged to
the party and the wooden folks had no idea what it was used for or
whether it was alive or not. When Eureka's captor had thrown the kitten
after the others the last Gargoyle silently disappeared, leaving our
friends to breathe freely once more.

"What an awful fight!" said Dorothy, catching her breath in little
gasps.

"Oh, I don't know," purred Eureka, smoothing her ruffled fur with her
paw; "we didn't manage to hurt anybody, and nobody managed to hurt us."

"Thank goodness we are together again, even if we are prisoners," sighed
the little girl.

"I wonder why they didn't kill us on the spot," remarked Zeb, who had
lost his king in the struggle.

"They are probably