Toward evening, the travelers found there was no longera path to guide them, and the purple hues of the grassand trees warned them that they were now in the Countryof the Gillikins, where strange peoples dwelt in placesthat were quite unknown to the other inhabitants of Oz.The fields were wild and uncultivated and there were nohouses of any sort to be seen. But our friends kept onwalking even after the sun went down, hoping to find agood place for Woot the Wanderer to sleep; but when itgrew quite dark and the boy was weary with his longwalk, they halted right in the middle of a field andallowed Woot to get his supper from the food he carriedin his knapsack. Then the Scarecrow laid himself down,so that Woot could use his stuffed body as a pillow,and the Tin Woodman stood up beside them all night, sothe dampness of the ground might not rust his joints ordull his brilliant polish. Whenever the dew settled onhis body he carefully wiped it off with a cloth, and soin the morning the Emperor shone as brightly as ever inthe rays of the rising sun.

They wakened the boy at daybreak, the Scarecrowsaying to him:

"We have discovered something queer, and therefore wemust counsel together what to do about it."

"What have you discovered?" asked Woot, rubbing thesleep from his eyes with his knuckles and giving threewide yawns to prove he was fully awake.

"A Sign," said the Tin Woodman. "A Sign, and another path."

"What does the Sign say?" inquired the boy.

"It says that 'All Strangers are Warned not to Followthis Path to Loonville,'" answered the Scarecrow, whocould read very well when his eyes had been freshlypainted.

"In that case," said the boy, opening his knapsack toget some breakfast, "let us travel in some otherdirection."

But this did not seem to please either of hiscompanions.

"I'd like to see what Loonville looks like," remarkedthe Tin Woodman.

"When one travels, it is foolish to miss anyinteresting sight," added the Scarecrow.

"But a warning means danger," protested Woot theWanderer, "and I believe it sensible to keep out ofdanger whenever we can."

They made no reply to this speech for a while. Thensaid the Scarecrow:

"I have escaped so many dangers, during my lifetime,that I am not much afraid of anything that can happen."

"Nor am I!" exclaimed the Tin Woodman, swinging hisglittering axe around his tin head, in a series ofcircles. "Few things can injure tin, and my axe is apowerful weapon to use against a foe. But our boyfriend," he continued, looking solemnly at Woot, "mightperhaps be injured if the people of Loonville arereally dangerous; so I propose he waits here while youand I, Friend Scarecrow, visit the forbidden City ofLoonville."

"Don't worry about me," advised Woot, calmly."Wherever you wish to go, I will go, and share yourdangers. During my wanderings I have found it more wiseto keep out of danger than to venture in, but at thattime I was alone, and now I have two powerful friendsto protect me."

So, when he had finished his breakfast, they all setout along the path that led to Loonville.

"It is a place I have never heard of before,"remarked the Scarecrow, as they approached a denseforest. "The inhabitants may be people, of some sort,or they may be animals, but whatever they prove to be,we will have an interesting story to relate to Dorothyand Ozma on our return."

The path led into the forest, but the big trees grewso closely together and the vines and underbrush wereso thick and matted that they had to clear a path ateach step in order to proceed. In one or two places theTin Man, who went first to clear the way, cut thebranches with a blow of his axe. Woot followed next,and last of the three came the Scarecrow, who could nothave kept the path at all had not his comrades brokenthe way for his straw-stuffed body.

Presently the Tin Woodman pushed his way through someheavy underbrush, and almost tumbled headlong into avast cleared space in the forest. The clearing wascircular, big and roomy, yet the top branches of thetall trees reached over and formed a complete dome orroof for it. Strangely enough, it was not dark in thisimmense natural chamber in the woodland, for the placeglowed with a soft, white light that seemed to comefrom some unseen source.

In the chamber were grouped dozens of queercreatures, and these so astonished the Tin Man thatWoot had to push his metal body aside, that he mightsee, too. And the Scarecrow pushed Woot aside, so thatthe three travelers stood in a row, staring with alltheir eyes.

The creatures they beheld were round and ball-like;round in body, round in legs and arms, round in handsand feet and round of head. The only exception to theroundness was a slight hollow on the top of each head,making it saucer-shaped instead of dome-shaped. Theywore no clothes on their puffy bodies, nor had they anyhair. Their skins were all of a light gray color, andtheir eyes were mere purple spots. Their noses were aspuffy as the rest of them.

"Are they rubber, do you think?" asked the Scarecrow,who noticed that the creatures bounded, as they moved,and seemed almost as light as air.

"It is difficult to tell what they are," answeredWoot, "they seem to be covered with warts."

The Loons -- for so these folks were called -- hadbeen doing many things, some playing together, someworking at tasks and some gathered in groups to talk;but at the sound of strange voices, which echoed ratherloudly through the clearing, all turned in thedirection of the intruders. Then, in a body, they allrushed forward, running and bounding with tremendousspeed.

The Tin Woodman was so surprised by this sudden dashthat he had no time to raise his axe before the Loonswere on them. The creatures swung their puffy hands,which looked like boxing-gloves, and pounded the threetravelers as hard as they could, on all sides. Theblows were quite soft and did not hurt our friends atall, but the onslaught quite bewildered them, so thatin a brief period all three were knocked over and fellflat upon the ground. Once down, many of the Loonsheld them, to prevent their getting up again, whileothers wound long tendrils of vines about them, bindingtheir arms and legs to their bodies and so renderingthem helpless.

"Aha!" cried the biggest Loon of all; "we've got 'emsafe; so let's carry 'em to King Bal and have 'emtried, and condemned and perforated!" They had to dragtheir captives to the center of the domed chamber, fortheir weight, as compared with that of the Loons,prevented their being carried. Even the Scarecrow wasmuch heavier than the puffy Loons. But finally theparty halted before a raised platform, on which stood asort of throne, consisting of a big, wide chair with astring tied to one arm of it. This string led upward tothe roof of the dome.

Arranged before the platform, the prisoners wereallowed to sit up, facing the empty throne.

"Good!" said the big Loon who had commanded theparty. "Now to get King Bal to judge these terriblecreatures we have so bravely captured."

As he spoke he took hold of the string and began topull as hard as he could. One or two of the othershelped him and pretty soon, as they drew in the cord,the leaves above them parted and a Loon appeared at theother end of the string. It didn't take long to drawhim down to the throne, where he seated himself and wastied in, so he wouldn't float upward again.

"Hello," said the King, blinking his purple eyes athis followers; "what's up now!"

"Strangers, your Majesty -- strangers and captives,"replied the big Loon, pompously

"Dear me! I see 'em. I see 'em very plainly,"exclaimed the King, his purple eyes bulging out as helooked at the three prisoners. "What curious animals!Are they dangerous, do you think, my good Panta?"

"I'm 'fraid so, your Majesty. Of course, they may notbe dangerous, but we mustn't take chances. Enoughaccidents happen to us poor Loons as it is, and myadvice is to condemn and perforate 'em as quickly aspossible."

"Keep your advice to yourself," said the monarch, ina peeved tone. "Who's King here, anyhow? You or Me?"

"We made you our King because you have less commonsense than the rest of us," answered Panta Loon,indignantly. "I could have been King myself, had Iwanted to, but I didn't care for the hard work andresponsibility."

As he said this, the big Loon strutted back and forthin the space between the throne of King Bal and theprisoners, and the other Loons seemed much impressed byhis defiance. But suddenly there came a sharp reportand Panta Loon instantly disappeared, to the greatastonishment of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and Wootthe Wanderer, who saw on the spot where the big fellowhad stood a little heap of flabby, wrinkled skin thatlooked like a collapsed rubber balloon.

"There!" exclaimed the King; "I expected that wouldhappen. The conceited rascal wanted to puff himself upuntil he was bigger than the rest of you, and this isthe result of his folly. Get the pump working, some ofyou, and blow him up again."

"We will have to mend the puncture first, yourMajesty," suggested one of the Loons, and the prisonersnoticed that none of them seemed surprised or shockedat the sad accident to Panta.

"All right," grumbled the King. "Fetch Til to mendhim."

One or two ran away and presently returned, followedby a lady Loon wearing huge, puffed-up rubber skirts.Also she had a purple feather fastened to a wart on thetop of her head, and around her waist was a sash offibre-like vines, dried and tough, that looked likestrings.

"Get to work, Til," commanded King Bal. "Panta hasjust exploded."

The lady Loon picked up the bunch of skin andexamined it carefully until she discovered a hole inone foot. Then she pulled a strand of string from hersash, and drawing the edges of the hole together. shetied them fast with the string, thus making one ofthose curious warts which the strangers had noticed onso many Loons. Having done this, Til Loon tossed thebit of skin to the other Loons and was about to go awaywhen she noticed the prisoners and stopped to inspectthem.

"Dear me!" said Til; "what dreadful creatures. Wheredid they come from?"

"We captured them," replied one of the Loons.

"And what are we going to do with them?" inquired thegirl Loon.

"Perhaps we'll condemn 'em and puncture 'em,"answered the King.

"Well," said she, still eyeing the "I'm not surethey'll puncture. Let's try it, and see."

One of the Loons ran to the forest's edge and quicklyreturned with a long, sharp thorn. He glanced at theKing, who nodded his head in assent, and then he rushedforward and stuck the thorn into the leg of theScarecrow. The Scarecrow merely smiled and saidnothing, for the thorn didn't hurt him at all.

Then the Loon tried to prick the Tin Woodman's leg,but the tin only blunted the point of the thorn.

"Just as I thought," said Til, blinking her purpleeyes and shaking her puffy head; but just then the Loonstuck the thorn into the leg of Woot the Wanderer, andwhile it had been blunted somewhat, it was still sharpenough to hurt.

"Ouch!" yelled Woot, and kicked out his leg with somuch energy that the frail bonds that tied him burstapart. His foot caught the Loon -- who was leaning overhim -- full on his puffy stomach, and sent him shootingup into the air. When he was high over their heads heexploded with a loud "pop" and his skin fell to theground.

"I really believe," said the King, rolling hisspotlike eyes in a frightened way, "that Panta wasright in claiming these prisoners are dangerous. Isthe pump ready?"

Some of the Loons had wheeled a big machine in frontof the throne and now took Panta's skin and began topump air into it. Slowly it swelled out until the Kingcried "Stop!"

"No, no!" yelled Panta, "I'm not big enough yet.""You're as big as you're going to be," declared theKing. "Before you exploded you were bigger than therest of us, and that caused you to be proud andoverbearing. Now you're a little smaller than the rest,and you will last longer and be more humble."

"Pump me up -- pump me up!" wailed Panta "If youdon't you'll break my heart."

"If we do we'll break your skin," replied the King.

So the Loons stopped pumping air into Panta, andpushed him away from the pump. He was certainly morehumble than before his accident, for he crept into thebackground and said nothing more.

"Now pump up the other one," ordered the King. Tilhad already mended him, and the Loons set to work topump him full of air.

During these last few moments none had paid muchattention to the prisoners, so Woot, finding his legsfree, crept over to the Tin Woodman and rubbed thebonds that were still around his arms and body againstthe sharp edge of the axe, which quickly cut them.

The boy was now free, and the thorn which the Loonhad stuck into his leg was lying unnoticed on theground, where the creature had dropped it when heexploded. Woot leaned forward and picked up the thorn,and while the Loons were busy watching the pump, theboy sprang to his feet and suddenly rushed upon thegroup.

"Pop" -- "pop" -- "pop!" went three of the Loons,when the Wanderer pricked them with his thorn, and atthe sounds the others looked around and saw theirdanger. With yells of fear they bounded away in alldirections, scattering about the clearing, with Wootthe Wanderer in full chase. While they could run muchfaster than the boy, they often stumbled and fell, orgot in one another's way, so he managed to catchseveral and prick them with his thorn.

It astonished him to see how easily the Loonsexploded. When the air was let out of them they werequite helpless. Til Loon was one of those who ranagainst his thorn and many others suffered the samefate. The creatures could not escape from theenclosure, but in their fright many bounded upward andcaught branches of the trees, and then climbed out ofreach of the dreaded thorn.

Woot was getting pretty tired chasing them, so hestopped and came over, panting, to where his friendswere sitting, still bound.

"Very well done, my Wanderer," said the Tin Woodman."It is evident that we need fear these puffed-upcreatures no longer, so be kind enough to unfasten ourbonds and we will proceed upon our journey."

Woot untied the bonds of the Scarecrow and helped himto his feet. Then he freed the Tin Woodman, who got upwithout help. Looking around them, they saw that theonly Loon now remaining within reach was Bal Loon, theKing, who had remained seated in his throne, watchingthe punishment of his people with a bewildered look inhis purple eyes.

"Shall I puncture the King?" the boy asked hiscompanions.

King Bal must have overheard the question, for hefumbled with the cord that fastened him to the throneand managed to release it. Then he floated upward untilhe reached the leafy dome, and parting the branches hedisappeared from sight. But the string that was tied tohis body was still connected with the arm of thethrone, and they knew they could pull his Majesty downagain, if they wanted to.

"Let him alone," suggested the Scarecrow. "He seems agood enough king for his peculiar people, and after weare gone, the Loons will have something of a job topump up all those whom Woot has punctured."

"Every one of them ought to be exploded," declaredWoot, who was angry because his leg still hurt him.

"No," said the Tin Woodman, "that would not be justfair. They were quite right to capture us, because wehad no business to intrude here, having been warned tokeep away from Loonville. This is their country, notours, and since the poor things can't get out of theclearing, they can harm no one save those who venturehere out of curiosity, as we did."

"Well said, my friend," agreed tile Scarecrow. "Wereally had no right to disturb their peace and comfort;so let us go away."

They easily found the place where they had forcedtheir way into the enclosure, so the Tin Woodman pushedaside the underbrush and started first along the path.The Scarecrow followed next and last came Woot, wholooked back and saw that the Loons were still clingingto their perches on the trees and watching their formercaptives with frightened eyes.

"I guess they're glad to see the last of us,"remarked the boy, and laughing at the happy ending ofthe adventure, he followed his comrades along the path.