Kiki Aru, in the form of the Li-Mon-Eag, had scrambled into the high,
thick branches of the tree, so no one could see him, and there he
opened the Wizard's black bag, which he had carried away in his flight.
He was curious to see what the Wizard's magic tools looked like, and
hoped he could use some of them and so secure more power; but after he
had taken the articles, one by one, from the bag, he had to admit they
were puzzles to him. For, unless he understood their uses, they were
of no value whatever. Kiki Aru, the Hyup boy, was no wizard or
magician at all, and could do nothing unusual except to use the Magic
Word he had stolen from his father on Mount Munch. So he hung the
Wizard's black bag on a branch of the tree and then climbed down to the
lower limbs that he might see what the victims of his transformations
were doing.
They were all on top of the flat rock, talking together in tones so low
that Kiki could not hear what they said.
"This is certainly a misfortune," remarked the Wizard in the Fox's
form, "but our transformations are a sort of enchantment which is very
easy to break--when you know how and have the tools to do it with. The
tools are in my Black Bag; but where is the Bag?"
No one knew that, for none had seen Kiki Aru fly away with it.
"Let's look and see if we can find it," suggested Dorothy the Lamb.
So they left the rock, and all of them searched the clearing high and
low without finding the Bag of Magic Tools. The Goose searched as
earnestly as the others, for if he could discover it, he meant to hide
it where the Wizard could never find it, because if the Wizard changed
him back to his proper form, along with the others, he would then be
recognized as Ruggedo the Nome, and they would send him out of the Land
of Oz and so ruin all his hopes of conquest.
Ruggedo was not really sorry, now that he thought about it, that Kiki
had transformed all these Oz folks. The forest beasts, it was true,
had been so frightened that they would now never consent to be
transformed into men, but Kiki could transform them against their will,
and once they were all in human forms, it would not be impossible to
induce them to conquer the Oz people.
So all was not lost, thought the old Nome, and the best thing for him
to do was to rejoin the Hyup boy who had the secret of the
transformations. So, having made sure the Wizard's black bag was not
in the clearing, the Goose wandered away through the trees when the
others were not looking, and when out of their hearing, he began
calling, "Kiki Aru! Kiki Aru! Quack--quack! Kiki Aru!"
The Boy and the Woman, the Fox, the Lamb, and the Rabbit, not being
able to find the bag, went back to the rock, all feeling exceedingly
strange.
"Where's the Goose?" asked the Wizard.
"He must have run away," replied Dorothy. "I wonder who he was?"
"I think," said Gugu the King, who was the fat Woman, "that the Goose
was the stranger who proposed that we make war upon the Oz people. If
so, his transformation was merely a trick to deceive us, and he has now
gone to join his comrade, that wicked Li-Mon-Eag who obeyed all his
commands."
"What shall we do now?" asked Dorothy. "Shall we go back to the
Emerald City, as we are, and then visit Glinda the Good and ask her to
break the enchantments?"
"I think so," replied the Wizard Fox. "And we can take Gugu the King
with us, and have Glinda restore him to his natural shape. But I hate
to leave my Bag of Magic Tools behind me, for without it I shall lose
much of my power as a Wizard. Also, if I go back to the Emerald City
in the shape of a Fox, the Oz people will think I'm a poor Wizard and
will lose their respect for me."
"Let us make still another search for your tools," suggested the
Cowardly Lion, "and then, if we fail to find the Black Bag anywhere in
this forest, we must go back home as we are."
"Why did you come here, anyway?" inquired Gugu.
"We wanted to borrow a dozen monkeys, to use on Ozma's birthday,"
explained the Wizard. "We were going to make them small, and train
them to do tricks, and put them inside Ozma's birthday cake."
"Well," said the Forest King, "you would have to get the consent of
Rango the Gray Ape, to do that. He commands all the tribes of monkeys."
"I'm afraid it's too late, now," said Dorothy, regretfully. "It was a
splendid plan, but we've got troubles of our own, and I don't like
being a lamb at all."
"You're nice and fuzzy," said the Cowardly Lion.
"That's nothing," declared Dorothy. "I've never been 'specially proud
of myself, but I'd rather be the way I was born than anything else in
the whole world."
The Glass Cat, although it had some disagreeable ways and manners,
nevertheless realized that Trot and Cap'n Bill were its friends and so
was quite disturbed at the fix it had gotten them into by leading them
to the Isle of the Magic Flower. The ruby heart of the Glass Cat was
cold and hard, but still it was a heart, and to have a heart of any
sort is to have some consideration for others. But the queer
transparent creature didn't want Trot and Cap'n Bill to know it was
sorry for them, and therefore it moved very slowly until it had crossed
the river and was out of sight among the trees of the forest. Then it
headed straight toward the Emerald City, and trotted so fast that it
was like a crystal streak crossing the valleys and plains. Being
glass, the cat was tireless, and with no reason to delay its journey,
it reached Ozma's palace in wonderfully quick time.
"Where's the Wizard?" it asked the Pink Kitten, which was curled up in
the sunshine on the lowest step of the palace entrance.
"Don't bother me," lazily answered the Pink Kitten, whose name was
Eureka.
"I must find the Wizard at once!" said the Glass Cat.
"Then find him," advised Eureka, and went to sleep again.
The Glass Cat darted up the stairway and came upon Toto, Dorothy's
little black dog.
"Where's the Wizard?" asked the Cat.
"Gone on a journey with Dorothy," replied Toto.
"When did they go, and where have they gone?" demanded the Cat.
"They went yesterday, and I heard them say they would go to the Great
Forest in the Munchkin Country."
"Dear me," said the Glass Cat; "that is a long journey."
"But they rode on the Hungry Tiger and the Cowardly Lion," explained
Toto, "and the Wizard carried his Black Bag of Magic Tools."
The Glass Cat knew the Great Forest of Gugu well, for it had traveled
through this forest many times in its journeys through the Land of Oz.
And it reflected that the Forest of Gugu was nearer to the Isle of the
Magic Flower than the Emerald City was, and so, if it could manage to
find the Wizard, it could lead him across the Gillikin Country to where
Trot and Cap'n Bill were prisoned. It was a wild country and little
traveled, but the Glass Cat knew every path. So very little time need
be lost, after all.
Without stopping to ask any more questions the Cat darted out of the
palace and away from the Emerald City, taking the most direct route to
the Forest of Gugu. Again the creature flashed through the country
like a streak of light, and it would surprise you to know how quickly
it reached the edge of the Great Forest.
There were no monkey guards among the trees to cry out a warning, and
this was so unusual that it astonished the Glass Cat. Going farther
into the forest it presently came upon a wolf, which at first bounded
away in terror. But then, seeing it was only a Glass Cat, the Wolf
stopped, and the Cat could see it was trembling, as if from a terrible
fright.
"What's the matter?" asked the Cat.
"A dreadful Magician has come among us!" exclaimed the Wolf, "and he's
changing the forms of all the beasts--quick as a wink--and making them
all his slaves."
The Glass Cat smiled and said:
"Why, that's only the Wizard of Oz. He may be having some fun with you
forest people, but the Wizard wouldn't hurt a beast for anything."
"I don't mean the Wizard," explained the Wolf. "And if the Wizard of
Oz is that funny little man who rode a great Tiger into the clearing,
he's been transformed himself by the terrible Magician."
"The Wizard transformed? Why, that's impossible," declared the Glass
Cat.
"No; it isn't. I saw him with my own eyes, changed into the form of a
Fox, and the girl who was with him was changed to a woolly Lamb."
The Glass Cat was indeed surprised.
"When did that happen?" it asked.
"Just a little while ago in the clearing. All the animals had met
there, but they ran away when the Magician began his transformations,
and I'm thankful I escaped with my natural shape. But I'm still
afraid, and I'm going somewhere to hide."
With this the Wolf ran on, and the Glass Cat, which knew where the big
clearing was, went toward it. But now it walked more slowly, and its
pink brains rolled and tumbled around at a great rate because it was
thinking over the amazing news the Wolf had told it.
When the Glass Cat reached the clearing, it saw a Fox, a Lamb, a
Rabbit, a Munchkin boy and a fat Gillikin woman, all wandering around
in an aimless sort of way, for they were again searching for the Black
Bag of Magic Tools.
The Cat watched them a moment and then it walked slowly into the open
space. At once the Lamb ran toward it, crying:
"Oh, Wizard, here's the Glass Cat!"
"Where, Dorothy?" asked the Fox.
"Here!"
The Boy and the Woman and the Rabbit now joined the Fox and the Lamb,
and they all stood before the Glass Cat and speaking together, almost
like a chorus, asked: "Have you seen the Black Bag?"
"Often," replied the Glass Cat, "but not lately."
"It's lost," said the Fox, "and we must find it."
"Are you the Wizard?" asked the Cat.
"Yes."
"And who are these others?"
"I'm Dorothy," said the Lamb.
"I'm the Cowardly Lion," said the Munchkin boy.
"I'm the Hungry Tiger," said the Rabbit.
"I'm Gugu, King of the Forest," said the fat Woman.
The Glass Cat sat on its hind legs and began to laugh. "My, what a
funny lot!" exclaimed the Creature. "Who played this joke on you?"
"It's no joke at all," declared the Wizard. "It was a cruel, wicked
transformation, and the Magician that did it has the head of a lion,
the body of a monkey, the wings of an eagle and a round ball on the end
of his tail."
The Glass Cat laughed again. "That Magician must look funnier than you
do," it said. "Where is he now?"
"Somewhere in the forest," said the Cowardly Lion. "He just jumped
into that tall maple tree over there, for he can climb like a monkey
and fly like an eagle, and then he disappeared in the forest."
"And there was another Magician, just like him, who was his friend,"
added Dorothy, "but they probably quarreled, for the wickedest one
changed his friend into the form of a Goose."
"What became of the Goose?" asked the Cat, looking around.
"He must have gone away to find his friend," answered Gugu the King.
"But a Goose can't travel very fast, so we could easily find him if we
wanted to."
"The worst thing of all," said the Wizard, "is that my Black Bag is
lost. It disappeared when I was transformed. If I could find it I
could easily break these enchantments by means of my magic, and we
would resume our own forms again. Will you help us search for the
Black Bag, Friend Cat?"
"Of course," replied the Glass Cat. "But I expect the strange Magician
carried it away with him. If he's a magician, he knows you need that
Bag, and perhaps he's afraid of your magic. So he's probably taken the
Bag with him, and you won't see it again unless you find the Magician."
"That sounds reasonable," remarked the Lamb, which was Dorothy. "Those
pink brains of yours seem to be working pretty well to-day."
"If the Glass Cat is right," said the Wizard in a solemn voice,
"there's more trouble ahead of us. That Magician is dangerous, and if
we go near him he may transform us into shapes not as nice as these."
"I don't see how we could be any WORSE off," growled Gugu, who was
indignant because he was forced to appear in the form of a fat woman.
"Anyway," said the Cowardly Lion, "our best plan is to find the
Magician and try to get the Black Bag from him. We may manage to steal
it, or perhaps we can argue him into giving it to us."
"Why not find the Goose, first?" asked Dorothy. "The Goose will be
angry at the Magician, and he may be able to help us."
"That isn't a bad idea," returned the Wizard. "Come on, Friends; let's
find that Goose. We will separate and search in different directions,
and the first to find the Goose must bring him here, where we will all
meet again in an hour."