Then arose a great confusion of sounds as all the animals begantalking to their fellows. The monkeys chattered and the bears growledand the voices of the jaguars and lions rumbled, and the wolves yelpedand the elephants had to trumpet loudly to make their voices heard.Such a hubbub had never been known in the forest before, and each beastargued with his neighbor until it seemed the noise would never cease.

Ruggedo the Nome waved his arms and fluttered his wings to try tomake them listen to him again, but the beasts paid no attention. Somewanted to fight the Oz people, some wanted to be transformed, and somewanted to do nothing at all.

The growling and confusion had grown greater than ever when in aflash silence fell on all the beasts present, the arguments werehushed, and all gazed in astonishment at a strange sight.

For into the circle strode a great Lion--bigger and more powerfulthan any other lion there--and on his back rode a little girl whosmiled fearlessly at the multitude of beasts. And behind the Lion andthe little girl came another beast--a monstrous Tiger, who bore uponhis back a funny little man carrying a black bag. Right past the rowsof wondering beasts the strange animals walked, advancing until theystood just before the rock throne of Gugu.

Then the little girl and the funny little man dismounted, and thegreat Lion demanded in a loud voice:

"Who is King in this forest?"

"I am!" answered Gugu, looking steadily at the other. "I am Guguthe Leopard, and I am King of this forest."

"Then I greet Your Majesty with great respect," said the Lion."Perhaps you have heard of me, Gugu. I am called the 'Cowardly Lion,'and I am King of all Beasts, the world over."

Gugu's eyes flashed angrily.

"Yes," said he, "I have heard of you. You have long claimed to beKing of Beasts, but no beast who is a coward can be King over me."

"He isn't a coward, Your Majesty," asserted the little girl, "He'sjust cowardly, that's all."

Gugu looked at her. All the other beasts were looking at her, too.

"Who are you?" asked the King.

"Me? Oh, I'm just Dorothy," she answered.

"How dare you come here?" demanded the King.

"Why, I'm not afraid to go anywhere, if the Cowardly Lion is withme," she said. "I know him pretty well, and so I can trust him. He'salways afraid, when we get into trouble, and that's why he's cowardly;but he's a terrible fighter, and that's why he isn't a coward. Hedoesn't like to fight, you know, but when he HAS to, there isn't anybeast living that can conquer him."

Gugu the King looked at the big, powerful form of the Cowardly Lion,and knew she spoke the truth. Also the other Lions of the forest nowcame forward and bowed low before the strange Lion.

"We welcome Your Majesty," said one. "We have known you many yearsago, before you went to live at the Emerald City, and we have seen youfight the terrible Kalidahs and conquer them, so we know you are theKing of all Beasts."

"It is true," replied the Cowardly Lion; "but I did not come here torule the beasts of this forest. Gugu is King here, and I believe heis a good King and just and wise. I come, with my friends, to be theguest of Gugu, and I hope we are welcome."

That pleased the great Leopard, who said very quickly:

"Yes; you, at least, are welcome to my forest. But who are thesestrangers with you?"

"Dorothy has introduced herself," replied the Lion, "and you aresure to like her when you know her better. This man is the Wizard ofOz, a friend of mine who can do wonderful tricks of magic. And hereis my true and tried friend, the Hungry Tiger, who lives with me inthe Emerald City."

"Is he ALWAYS hungry?" asked Loo the Unicorn.

"I am," replied the Tiger, answering the question himself. "I amalways hungry for fat babies."

"Can't you find any fat babies in Oz to eat?" inquired Loo, the Unicorn.

"There are plenty of them, of course," said the Tiger, "butunfortunately I have such a tender conscience that it won't allow meto eat babies. So I'm always hungry for 'em and never can eat 'em,because my conscience won't let me."

Now of all the surprised beasts in that clearing, not one was somuch surprised at the sudden appearance of these four strangers asRuggedo the Nome. He was frightened, too, for he recognized them ashis most powerful enemies; but he also realized that they could notknow he was the former King of the Nomes, because of the beast's formhe wore, which disguised him so effectually. So he took courage andresolved that the Wizard and Dorothy should not defeat his plans.

It was hard to tell, just yet, what the vast assemblage of beaststhought of the new arrivals. Some glared angrily at them, but more ofthem seemed to be curious and wondering. All were interested,however, and they kept very quiet and listened carefully to all thatwas said.

Kiki Aru, who had remained unnoticed in the shadow of the rock, wasat first more alarmed by the coming of the strangers than even Ruggedowas, and the boy told himself that unless he acted quickly and withoutwaiting to ask the advice of the old Nome, their conspiracy was likelyto be discovered and all their plans to conquer and rule Oz bedefeated. Kiki didn't like the way Ruggedo acted either, for theformer King of the Nomes wanted to do everything his own way, and madethe boy, who alone possessed the power of transformations, obey hisorders as if he were a slave.

Another thing that disturbed Kiki Aru was the fact that a realWizard had arrived, who was said to possess many magical powers, andthis Wizard carried his tools in a black bag, and was the friend ofthe Oz people, and so would probably try to prevent war between thebeasts of the forest and the people of Oz.

All these things passed through the mind of the Hyup boy while theCowardly Lion and Gugu the King were talking together, and that waswhy he now began to do several strange things.

He had found a place, near to the point where he stood, where therewas a deep hollow in the rock, so he put his face into this hollow andwhispered softly, so he would not be heard:

"I want the Wizard of Oz to become a fox--Pyrzqxgl!"

The Wizard, who had stood smilingly beside his friends, suddenlyfelt his form change to that of a fox, and his black bag fell to theground. Kiki reached out an arm and seized the bag, and the Fox criedas loud as it could:

"Treason! There's a traitor here with magic powers!"

Everyone was startled at this cry, and Dorothy, seeing her oldfriend's plight, screamed and exclaimed: "Mercy me!"

But the next instant the little girl's form had changed to that of alamb with fleecy white wool, and Dorothy was too bewildered to doanything but look around her in wonder.

The Cowardly Lion's eyes now flashed fire; he crouched low andlashed the ground with his tail and gazed around to discover who thetreacherous magician might be. But Kiki, who had kept his face in thehollow rock, again whispered the magic word, and the great liondisappeared and in his place stood a little boy dressed in Munchkincostume. The little Munchkin boy was as angry as the lion had been,but he was small and helpless.

Ruggedo the Nome saw what was happening and was afraid Kiki wouldspoil all his plans, so he leaned over the rock and shouted: "Stop,Kiki--stop!"

Kiki would not stop, however. Instead, he transformed the Nome intoa goose, to Ruggedo's horror and dismay. But the Hungry Tiger hadwitnessed all these transformations, and he was watching to see whichof those present was to blame for them. When Ruggedo spoke to Kiki,the Hungry Tiger knew that he was the magician, so he made a suddenspring and hurled his great body full upon the form of the Li-Mon-Eagcrouching against the rock. Kiki didn't see the Tiger coming becausehis face was still in the hollow, and the heavy body of the tiger borehim to the earth just as he said "Pyrzqxgl!" for the fifth time.

So now the tiger which was crushing him changed to a rabbit, andrelieved of its weight, Kiki sprang up and, spreading his eagle'swings, flew into the branches of a tree, where no beast could easilyreach him. He was not an instant too quick in doing this, for Guguthe King had crouched on the rock's edge and was about to spring onthe boy.

From his tree Kiki transformed Gugu into a fat Gillikin woman, andlaughed aloud to see how the woman pranced with rage, and howastonished all the beasts were at their King's new shape.

The beasts were frightened, too, fearing they would share the fateof Gugu, so a stampede began when Rango the Gray Ape sprang into theforest, and Bru the Bear and Loo the Unicorn followed as quickly asthey could. The elephants backed into the forest, and all the otheranimals, big and little, rushed after them, scattering through thejungles until the clearing was far behind. The monkeys scrambled intothe trees and swung themselves from limb to limb, to avoid beingtrampled upon by the bigger beasts, and they were so quick that theydistanced all the rest. A panic of fear seemed to have overtaken theforest people and they got as far away from the terrible Magician asthey possibly could.

But the transformed ones stayed in the clearing, being so astonishedand bewildered by their new shapes that they could only look at oneanother in a dazed and helpless fashion, although each one was greatlyannoyed at the trick that had been played on him.

"Who are you?" the Munchkin boy asked the Rabbit; and "Who are you?"the Fox asked the Lamb; and "Who are you?" the Rabbit asked the fatGillikin woman.

"I'm Dorothy," said the woolly Lamb.

"I'm the Wizard," said the Fox.

"I'm the Cowardly Lion," said the Munchkin boy.

"I'm the Hungry Tiger," said the Rabbit.

"I'm Gugu the King," said the fat Woman.

But when they asked the Goose who he was, Ruggedo the Nome would nottell them.

"I'm just a Goose," he replied, "and what I was before, I cannot remember."