anyone could complain of with justice was the fact that they wobbled
first up and then down, as if the road were rocky instead of being as
smooth as the air could make it.

The main point, however, was that they flew, and flew swiftly, if a bit
unevenly, toward the rock for which they had headed.

Some of the Gargoyles saw them, presently, and lost no time in
collecting a band to pursue the escaping prisoners; so that when
Dorothy happened to look back she saw them coming in a great cloud that
almost darkened the sky.

13. The Den of the Dragonettes

Our friends had a good start and were able to maintain it, for with
their eight wings they could go just as fast as could the Gargoyles.
All the way to the great rock the wooden people followed them, and when
Jim finally alighted at the mouth of the cavern the pursuers were still
some distance away.

"But, I'm afraid they'll catch us yet," said Dorothy, greatly excited.

"No; we must stop them," declared the Wizard. "Quick Zeb, help me pull
off these wooden wings!"

They tore off the wings, for which they had no further use, and the
Wizard piled them in a heap just outside the entrance to the cavern.
Then he poured over them all the kerosene oil that was left in his
oil-can, and lighting a match set fire to the pile.

The flames leaped up at once and the bonfire began to smoke and roar
and crackle just as the great army of wooden Gargoyles arrived. The
creatures drew back at once, being filled with fear and horror; for
such as dreadful thing as a fire they had never before known in all the
history of their wooden land.

Inside the archway were several doors, leading to different rooms built
into the mountain, and Zeb and the Wizard lifted these wooden doors
from their hinges and tossed them all on the flames.

"That will prove a barrier for some time to come," said the little man,
smiling pleasantly all over his wrinkled face at the success of their
stratagem. "Perhaps the flames will set fire to all that miserable
wooden country, and if it does the loss will be very small and the
Gargoyles never will be missed. But come, my children; let us explore
the mountain and discover which way we must go in order to escape from
this cavern, which is getting to be almost as hot as a bake-oven."

To their disappointment there was within this mountain no regular
flight of steps by means of which they could mount to the earth's
surface. A sort of inclined tu