The flat mountain looked much nearer in the clearlight of the morning sun, but Dorothy and Ozma knewthere was a long tramp before them, even yet. Theyfinished dressing only to find a warm, deliciousbreakfast awaiting them, and having eaten they left thetent and started toward the mountain which was theirfirst goal. After going a little way Dorothy lookedback and found that the fairy tent had entirelydisappeared. She was not surprised, for she knew thiswould happen.

"Can't your magic give us a horse an' wagon, or anautomobile?" inquired Dorothy.

"No, dear; I'm sorry that such magic is beyond mypower," confessed her fairy friend.

"Perhaps Glinda could," said Dorothy thoughtfully.

"Glinda has a stork chariot that carries her throughthe air," said Ozma, "but even our great Sorceresscannot conjure up other modes of travel. Don't forgetwhat I told you last night, that no one is powerfulenough to do everything."

"Well, I s'pose I ought to know that, having lived solong in the Land of Oz," replied Dorothy; "but I can'tdo any magic at all, an' so I can't figure out e'zactlyhow you an' Glinda an' the Wizard do it."

"Don't try," laughed Ozma. "But you have at least onemagical art, Dorothy: you know the trick of winning allhearts."

"No, I don't," said Dorothy earnestly. "If I reallycan do it, Ozma, I am sure I don't know how I do it."

It took them a good two hours to reach the foot ofthe round, flat mountain, and then they found thesides so steep that they were like the wall of a house.

"Even my purple kitten couldn't climb 'em," remarkedDorothy, gazing upward.

"But there is some way for the Flatheads to get downand up again," declared Ozma; "otherwise they couldn'tmake war with the Skeezers, or even meet them andquarrel with them."

"That's so, Ozma. Let's walk around a ways; perhapswe'll find a ladder or something."

They walked quite a distance, for it was a bigmountain, and as they circled around it and came to theside that faced the palm trees, they suddenlydiscovered an entrance way cut out of the rock wall.This entrance was arched overhead and not very deepbecause it merely led to a short flight of stonestairs.

"Oh, we've found a way to the top at last," announcedOzma, and the two girls turned and walked straighttoward the entrance. Suddenly they bumped againstsomething and stood still, unable to proceed farther.

"Dear me!" exclaimed Dorothy, rubbing her nose, whichhad struck something hard, although she could not seewhat it was; "this isn't as easy as it looks. What hasstopped us, Ozma? Is it magic of some sort?"

Ozma was feeling around, her bands outstretchedbefore her.

"Yes, dear, it is magic," she replied. "The Flatheadshad to have a way from their mountain top from theplain below, but to prevent enemies from rushing up thestairs to conquer them, they have built, at a smalldistance before the entrance a wall of solid stone, thestones being held in place by cement, and then theymade the wall invisible."

"I wonder why they did that?" mused Dorothy. "A wallwould keep folks out anyhow, whether it could be seenor not, so there wasn't any use making it invisible.Seems to me it would have been better to have left itsolid, for then no one would have seen the entrancebehind it. Now anybody can see the entrance, as we did.And prob'bly anybody that tries to go up the stairsgets bumped, as we did."

Ozma made no reply at once. Her face was grave andthoughtful.

"I think I know the reason for making the wallinvisible," she said after a while. "The Flatheads usethe stairs for coming down and going up. If there was asolid stone wall to keep them from reaching the plainthey would themselves be imprisoned by the wall. Sothey had to leave some place to get around the wall,and, if the wall was visible, all strangers or enemieswould find the place to go around it and then the wallwould be useless. So the Flatheads cunningly made theirwall invisible, believing that everyone who saw theentrance to the mountain would walk straight toward it,as we did, and find it impossible to go any farther. Isuppose the wall is really high and thick, and can't bebroken through, so those who find it in their way areobliged to go away again."

"Well," said Dorothy, "if there's a way around thewall, where is it?"

"We must find it," returned Ozma, and began feelingher way along the wall. Dorothy followed and began toget discouraged when Ozma had walked nearly a quarterof a mile away from the entrance. But now the invisiblewall curved in toward the side of the mountain andsuddenly ended, leaving just space enough between thewall and the mountain for an ordinary person to passthrough.

The girls went in, single file, and Ozma explainedthat they were now behind the barrier and could goback to the entrance. They met no further obstructions.

"Most people, Ozma, wouldn't have figured this thingout the way you did," remarked Dorothy. "If I'd beenalone the invisible wall surely would have stumped me."

Reaching the entrance they began to mount the stonestairs. They went up ten stairs and then down fivestairs, following a passage cut from the rock. Thestairs were just wide enough for the two girls to walkabreast, arm in arm. At the bottom of the five stairsthe passage turned to the right, and they ascended tenmore stairs, only to find at the top of the flight fivestairs leading straight down again. Again the passageturned abruptly, this time to the left, and ten morestairs led upward.

The passage was now quite dark, for they were in theheart of the mountain and all daylight had been shutout by the turns of the passage. However, Ozma drew hersilver wand from her bosom and the great jewel at itsend gave out a lustrous, green-tinted light whichlighted the place well enough for them to see their wayplainly.

Ten steps up, five steps down, and a turn, this wayor that. That was the program, and Dorothy figured thatthey were only gaining five stairs upward each tripthat they made.

"Those Flatheads must be funny people," she said toOzma. "They don't seem to do anything in a boldstraightforward manner. In making this passage theyforced everyone to walk three times as far as isnecessary. And of course this trip is just as tiresometo the Flatheads as it is to other folks."

"That is true," answered Ozma; "yet it is a cleverarrangement to prevent their being surprised byintruders. Every time we reach the tenth step of aflight, the pressure of our feet on the stone makes abell ring on top of the mountain, to warn the Flatheadsof our coming."

"How do you know that?" demanded Dorothy, astonished.

"I've heard the bell ever since we started," Ozmatold her. "You could not hear it, I know, but when I amholding my wand in my hand I can hear sounds a greatdistance off."

"Do you hear anything on top of the mountain 'ceptthe bell?" inquired Dorothy

"Yes. The people are calling to one another in alarmand many footsteps are approaching the place where wewill reach the flat top of the mountain."

This made Dorothy feel somewhat anxious. "I'd thoughtwe were going to visit just common, ordinary people,"she remarked, "but they're pretty clever, it seems, andthey know some kinds of magic, too. They may bedangerous, Ozma. P'raps we'd better stayed at home."

Finally the upstairs-and-downstairs passage seemedcoming to an end, for daylight again appeared ahead ofthe two girls and Ozma replaced her wand in the bosomof her gown. The last ten steps brought them to thesurface, where they found themselves surrounded bysuch a throng of queer people that for a time theyhalted, speechless, and stared into the faces thatconfronted them.

Dorothy knew at once why these mountain people werecalled Flatheads. Their heads were really flat on top,as if they had been cut off just above the eyes andears. Also the heads were bald, with no hair on top atall, and the ears were big and stuck straight out, andthe noses were small and stubby, while the mouths ofthe Flatheads were well shaped and not unusual. Theireyes were perhaps their best feature, being large andbright and a deep violet in color.

The costumes of the Flatheads were all made of metalsdug from their mountain. Small gold, silver, tin andiron discs, about the size of pennies, and very thin,were cleverly wired together and made to form kneetrousers and jackets for the men and skirts and waistsfor the women. The colored metals were skillfully mixedto form stripes and checks of various sorts, so thatthe costumes were quite gorgeous and reminded Dorothyof pictures she had seen of Knights of old clothedarmor.

Aside from their flat heads, these people were notreally bad looking. The men were armed with bows andarrows and had small axes of steel stuck in their metalbelts. They wore no hats nor ornaments.