ly until the path appeared
for the second time.

The children and the Wizard rushed across the moving rock and sprang
into the passage beyond, landing safely though a little out of breath.
Jim the cab-horse came last, and the rocky wall almost caught him; for
just as he leaped to the floor of the further passage the wall swung
across it and a loose stone that the buggy wheels knocked against fell
into the narrow crack where the rock turned, and became wedged there.

They heard a crunching, grinding sound, a loud snap, and the turn-table
came to a stop with its broadest surface shutting off the path from
which they had come.

"Never mind," said Zeb, "we don't want to get back, anyhow."

"I'm not so sure of that," returned Dorothy. "The mother dragon may come
down and catch us here."

"It is possible," agreed the Wizard, "if this proves to be the path she
usually takes. But I have been examining this tunnel, and I do not see
any signs of so large a beast having passed through it."

"Then we're all right," said the girl, "for if the dragon went the other
way she can't poss'bly get to us now."

"Of course not, my dear. But there is another thing to consider. The
mother dragon probably knows the road to the earth's surface, and if she
went the other way then we have come the wrong way," said the Wizard,
thoughtfully.

"Dear me!" cried Dorothy. "That would be unlucky, wouldn't it?"

"Very. Unless this passage also leads to the top of the earth," said
Zeb. "For my part, if we manage to get out of here I'll be glad it isn't
the way the dragon goes."

"So will I," returned Dorothy. "It's enough to have your pedigree flung
in your face by those saucy dragonettes. No one knows what the mother
might do."

They now moved on again, creeping slowly up another steep incline. The
lanterns were beginning to grow dim, and the Wizard poured the remaining
oil from one into the other, so that the one light would last longer.
But their journey was almost over, for in a short time they reached a
small cave from which there was no further outlet.

They did not realize their ill fortune at first, for their hearts were
gladdened by the sight of a ray of sunshine coming through a small crack
in the roof of the cave, far overhead. That meant that their world--the
real world--was not very far away, and that the succession of perilous
adventures they had encountered had at last brought them near the
earth's surface, which meant home to