st 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 keeping us for some ceremony," the Wizard answered,
reflectively; "but there is no doubt they intend to kill us as dead as
possible in a short time."

"As dead as poss'ble would be pretty dead, wouldn't it?" asked Dorothy.

"Yes, my dear. But we have no need to worry about that just now. Let
us examine our prison and see what it is like."

The space underneath the roof, where they stood, permitted them to see
on all sides of the tall building, and they looked with much curiosity
at the city spread out beneath them. Everything visible was made of
wood, and the scene seemed stiff and extremely unnatural.

From their platform a stair descended into the house, and the children
and the Wizard explored it after lighting a lantern to show them the
way. Several stories of empty rooms rewarded their search, but nothing
more; so after a time they came back to the platform again. Had there
been any doors or windows in the lower rooms, or had not the boards of
the house been so thick and stout, escape could have been easy; but to
remain down below was like being in a cellar or the hold of a ship, and
they did not like the darkness or the damp smell.

In this country, as in all others they had visited underneath the
earth's surface, there was no night, a constant and strong light coming
from some unknown source. Looking out, they could see into some of the
houses near them, where there were open windows in abundance, and were
able to mark the forms of the wooden Gargoyles moving about in their
dwellings.

"This seems to be their time of rest," observed the Wizard. "All
people need rest, even if they are made of wood, and as there is no