nnel led upward for a way, and they
found the floor of it both rough and steep. Then a sudden turn brought
them to a narrow gallery where the buggy could not pass. This delayed
and bothered them for a while, because they did not wish to leave the
buggy behind them. It carried their baggage and was useful to ride in
wherever there were good roads, and since it had accompanied them so
far in their travels they felt it their duty to preserve it. So Zeb
and the Wizard set to work and took off the wheels and the top, and
then they put the buggy edgewise, so it would take up the smallest
space. In this position they managed, with the aid of the patient
cab-horse, to drag the vehicle through the narrow part of the passage.
It was not a great distance, fortunately, and when the path grew
broader they put the buggy together again and proceeded more
comfortably. But the road was nothing more than a series of rifts or
cracks in the mountain, and it went zig-zag in every direction,
slanting first up and then down until they were puzzled as to whether
they were any nearer to the top of the earth than when they had
started, hours before.

"Anyhow," said Dorothy, "we've 'scaped those awful Gurgles, and that's
ONE comfort!"

"Probably the Gargoyles are still busy trying to put out the fire,"
returned the Wizard. "But even if they succeeded in doing that it
would be very difficult for them to fly amongst these rocks; so I am
sure we need fear them no longer."

Once in a while they would come to a deep crack in the floor, which
made the way quite dangerous; but there was still enough oil in the
lanterns to give them light, and the cracks were not so wide but that
they were able to jump over them. Sometimes they had to climb over
heaps of loose rock, where Jim could scarcely drag the buggy. At such
times Dorothy, Zeb and the Wizard all pushed behind, and lifted the
wheels over the roughest places; so they managed, by dint of hard work,
to keep going. But the little party was both weary and discouraged
when at last, on turning a sharp corner, the wanderers found themselves
in a vast cave arching high over their heads and having a smooth, level
floor.

The cave was circular in shape, and all around its edge, near to the
ground, appeared groups of dull yellow lights, two of them being always
side by side. These were motionless at first, but soon began to
flicker more brightly and to sway slowly from side to side and then up