Now, the Goose was the transformation of old Ruggedo, who was at onetime King of the Nomes, and he was even more angry at Kiki Aru thanwere the others who shapes had been changed. The Nome detestedanything in the way of a bird, because birds lay eggs and eggs arefeared by all the Nomes more than anything else in the world. A gooseis a foolish bird, too, and Ruggedo was dreadfully ashamed of theshape he was forced to wear. And it would make him shudder to reflectthat the Goose might lay an egg!

So the Nome was afraid of himself and afraid of everything aroundhim. If an egg touched him he could then be destroyed, and almost anyanimal he met in the forest might easily conquer him. And that wouldbe the end of old Ruggedo the Nome.

Aside from these fears, however, he was filled with anger againstKiki, whom he had meant to trap by cleverly stealing from him theMagic Word. The boy must have been crazy to spoil everything the wayhe did, but Ruggedo knew that the arrival of the Wizard had scaredKiki, and he was not sorry the boy had transformed the Wizard andDorothy and made them helpless. It was his own transformation thatannoyed him and made him indignant, so he ran about the forest huntingfor Kiki, so that he might get a better shape and coax the boy tofollow his plans to conquer the Land of Oz.

Kiki Aru hadn't gone very far away, for he had surprised himself aswell as the others by the quick transformations and was puzzled as towhat to do next. Ruggedo the Nome was overbearing and tricky, andKiki knew he was not to be depended on; but the Nome could plan andplot, which the Hyup boy was not wise enough to do, and so, when helooked down through the branches of a tree and saw a Goose waddlingalong below and heard it cry out, "Kiki Aru! Quack--quack! KikiAru!" the boy answered in a low voice, "Here I am," and swung himselfdown to the lowest limb of the tree.

The Goose looked up and saw him.

"You've bungled things in a dreadful way!" exclaimed the Goose."Why did you do it?"

"Because I wanted to," answered Kiki. "You acted as if I was yourslave, and I wanted to show these forest people that I am morepowerful than you."

The Goose hissed softly, but Kiki did not hear that.

Old Ruggedo quickly recovered his wits and muttered to himself:"This boy is the goose, although it is I who wear the goose's shape.I will be gentle with him now, and fierce with him when I have him inmy power." Then he said aloud to Kiki:

"Well, hereafter I will be content to acknowledge you the master.You bungled things, as I said, but we can still conquer Oz."

"How?" asked the boy.

"First give me back the shape of the Li-Mon-Eag, and then we cantalk together more conveniently," suggested the Nome.

"Wait a moment, then," said Kiki, and climbed higher up the tree.There he whispered the Magic Word and the Goose became a Li-Mon-Eag,as he had been before.

"Good!" said the Nome, well pleased, as Kiki joined him by droppingdown from the tree. "Now let us find a quiet place where we can talkwithout being overheard by the beasts."

So the two started away and crossed the forest until they came to aplace where the trees were not so tall nor so close together, andamong these scattered trees was another clearing, not so large as thefirst one, where the meeting of the beasts had been held. Standing onthe edge of this clearing and looking across it, they saw the trees onthe farther side full of monkeys, who were chattering together at agreat rate of the sights they had witnessed at the meeting.

The old Nome whispered to Kiki not to enter the clearing or allowthe monkeys to see them.

"Why not?" asked the boy, drawing back.

"Because those monkeys are to be our army--the army which willconquer Oz," said the Nome. "Sit down here with me, Kiki, and keepquiet, and I will explain to you my plan."

Now, neither Kiki Aru nor Ruggedo had noticed that a sly Fox hadfollowed them all the way from the tree where the Goose had beentransformed to the Li-Mon-Eag. Indeed, this Fox, who was none otherthan the Wizard of Oz, had witnessed the transformation of the Gooseand now decided he would keep watch on the conspirators and see whatthey would do next.

A Fox can move through a forest very softly, without making anynoise, and so the Wizard's enemies did not suspect his presence. Butwhen they sat down by the edge of the clearing, to talk, with theirbacks toward him, the Wizard did not know whether to risk being seen,by creeping closer to hear what they said, or whether it would bebetter for him to hide himself until they moved on again.

While he considered this question he discovered near him a greattree which had a hollow trunk, and there was a round hole in thistree, about three feet above the ground. The Wizard Fox decided itwould be safer for him to hide inside the hollow tree, so he spranginto the hole and crouched down in the hollow, so that his eyes justcame to the edge of the hole by which he had entered, and from here hewatched the forms of the two Li-Mon-Eags.

"This is my plan," said the Nome to Kiki, speaking so low that theWizard could only hear the rumble of his voice. "Since you cantransform anything into any form you wish, we will transform thesemonkeys into an army, and with that army we will conquer the Oz people."

"The monkeys won't make much of an army," objected Kiki.

"We need a great army, but not a numerous one," responded the Nome."You will transform each monkey into a giant man, dressed in a fineuniform and armed with a sharp sword. There are fifty monkeys overthere and fifty giants would make as big an army as we need."

"What will they do with the swords?" asked Kiki. "Nothing can killthe Oz people."

"True," said Ruggedo. "The Oz people cannot be killed, but they canbe cut into small pieces, and while every piece will still be alive,we can scatter the pieces around so that they will be quite helpless.Therefore, the Oz people will be afraid of the swords of our army, andwe will conquer them with ease."

"That seems like a good idea," replied the boy, approvingly. "Andin such a case, we need not bother with the other beasts of the forest."

"No; you have frightened the beasts, and they would no longerconsent to assist us in conquering Oz. But those monkeys are foolishcreatures, and once they are transformed to Giants, they will do justas we say and obey our commands. Can you transform them all at once?"

"No, I must take one at a time," said Kiki. "But the fiftytransformations can be made in an hour or so. Stay here, Ruggedo, andI will change the first monkey--that one at the left, on the end ofthe limb--into a Giant with a sword."

"Where are you going?" asked the Nome.

"I must not speak the Magic Word in the presence of another person,"declared Kiki, who was determined not to allow his treacherouscompanion to learn his secret, "so I will go where you cannot hear me."

Ruggedo the Nome was disappointed, but he hoped still to catch theboy unawares and surprise the Magic Word. So he merely nodded hislion head, and Kiki got up and went back into the forest a shortdistance. Here he spied a hollow tree, and by chance it was the samehollow tree in which the Wizard of Oz, now in the form of a Fox, hadhidden himself.

As Kiki ran up to the tree the Fox ducked its head, so that it wasout of sight in the dark hollow beneath the hole, and then Kiki puthis face into the hole and whispered: "I want that monkey on thebranch at the left to become a Giant man fifty feet tall, dressed in auniform and with a sharp sword--Pyrzqxgl!"

Then he ran back to Ruggedo, but the Wizard Fox had heard quiteplainly every word that he had said.

The monkey was instantly transformed into the Giant, and the Giantwas so big that as he stood on the ground his head was higher than thetrees of the forest. The monkeys raised a great chatter but did notseem to understand that the Giant was one of themselves.

"Good!" cried the Nome. "Hurry, Kiki, and transform the others."

So Kiki rushed back to the tree and putting his face to thehollow, whispered:

"I want the next monkey to be just like the first--Pyrzqxgl!"

Again the Wizard Fox heard the Magic Word, and just how it waspronounced. But he sat still in the hollow and waited to hear it again,so it would be impressed on his mind and he would not forget it.

Kiki kept running to the edge of the forest and back to the hollowtree again until he had whispered the Magic Word six times and sixmonkeys had been changed to six great Giants. Then the Wizard decidedhe would make an experiment and use the Magic Word himself. So, whileKiki was running back to the Nome, the Fox stuck his head out of thehollow and said softly: "I want that creature who is running to becomea hickory-nut--Pyrzqxgl!"

Instantly the Li-Mon-Eag form of Kiki Aru the Hyup disappeared and asmall hickory-nut rolled upon the ground a moment and then lay still.

The Wizard was delighted, and leaped from the hollow just as Ruggedolooked around to see what had become of Kiki. The Nome saw the Foxbut no Kiki, so he hastily rose to his feet. The Wizard did not knowhow powerful the queer beast might be, so he resolved to take no chances.

"I want this creature to become a walnut--Pyrzqxgl!" he said aloud.But he did not pronounce the Magic Word in quite the right way, andRuggedo's form did not change. But the Nome knew at once that"Pyrzqxgl!" was the Magic Word, so he rushed at the Fox and cried:

"I want you to become a Goose--Pyrzqxgl!"

But the Nome did not pronounce the word aright, either, having neverheard it spoken but once before, and then with a wrong accent. So theFox was not transformed, but it had to run away to escape being caughtby the angry Nome.

Ruggedo now began pronouncing the Magic Word in every way he couldthink of, hoping to hit the right one, and the Fox, hiding in a bush,was somewhat troubled by the fear that he might succeed. However, theWizard, who was used to magic arts, remained calm and soon rememberedexactly how Kiki Aru had pronounced the word. So he repeated the sentencehe had before uttered and Ruggedo the Nome became an ordinary walnut.

The Wizard now crept out from the bush and said: "I want my own formagain--Pyrzqxgl!"

Instantly he was the Wizard of Oz, and after picking up thehickory-nut and the walnut, and carefully placing them in his pocket,he ran back to the big clearing.

Dorothy the Lamb uttered a bleat of delight when she saw her old friendrestored to his natural shape. The others were all there, not havingfound the Goose. The fat Gillikin woman, the Munchkin boy, the Rabbitand the Glass Cat crowded around the Wizard and asked what had happened.

Before he explained anything of his adventure, he transformed themall--except, of course, the Glass Cat--into their natural shapes, andwhen their joy permitted them to quiet somewhat, he told how he had bychance surprised the Magician's secret and been able to change the twoLi-Mon-Eags into shapes that could not speak, and therefore would beunable to help themselves. And the little Wizard showed hisastonished friends the hickory-nut and the walnut to prove that he hadspoken the truth.

"But--see here!"--exclaimed Dorothy. "What has become of thoseGiant Soldiers who used to be monkeys?"

"I forgot all about them!" admitted the Wizard; "but I suppose theyare still standing there in the forest."