ar me! how careless Eureka is," exclaimed the girl, much distressed.
"The Gurgles will get her, sure!"

"Ha, ha!" chuckled the old cab-horse; "they're not 'Gurgles,' little
maid; they're Gargoyles."

"Never mind; they'll get Eureka, whatever they're called."

"No they won't," said the voice of the kitten, and Eureka herself
crawled over the edge of the platform and sat down quietly upon the
floor.

"Wherever have you been, Eureka?" asked Dorothy, sternly.

"Watching the wooden folks. They're too funny for anything, Dorothy.
Just now they are all going to bed, and--what do you think?--they unhook
the hinges of their wings and put them in a corner until they wake up
again."

"What, the hinges?"

"No; the wings."

"That," said Zeb, "explains why this house is used by them for a prison.
If any of the Gargoyles act badly, and have to be put in jail, they are
brought here and their wings unhooked and taken away from them until
they promise to be good."

The Wizard had listened intently to what Eureka had said.

"I wish we had some of those loose wings," he said.

"Could we fly with them?" asked Dorothy.

"I think so. If the Gargoyles can unhook the wings then the power to fly
lies in the wings themselves, and not in the wooden bodies of the people
who wear them. So, if we had the wings, we could probably fly as well as
they do--at least while we are in their country and under the spell of
its magic."

"But how would it help us to be able to fly?" questioned the girl.

"Come here," said the little man, and took her to one of the corners of
the building. "Do you see that big rock standing on the hillside
yonder?" he continued, pointing with his finger.

"Yes; it's a good way off, but I can see it," she replied.

"Well, inside that rock, which reaches up into the clouds, is an archway
very much like the one we entered when we climbed the spiral stairway
from the Valley of Voe. I'll get my spy-glass, and then you can see it
more plainly."

He fetched a small but powerful telescope, which had been in his
satchel, and by its aid the little girl clearly saw the opening.

"Where does it lead to?" she asked.

"That I cannot tell," said the Wizard; "but we cannot now be far below
the earth's surface, and that entrance may lead to another stairway that
will bring us on top of our world again, where we belong. So, if we had
the wings, and could escape the Gargoyles, we might fly to that rock and
be saved."

"I'