Kiki Aru didn't know much about Oz and didn't know much about thebeasts who lived there, but the old Nome's plan seemed to him to bequite reasonable. He had a faint suspicion that Ruggedo meant to getthe best of him in some way, and he resolved to keep a close watch onhis fellow-conspirator. As long as he kept to himself the secret wordof the transformations, Ruggedo would not dare to harm him, and hepromised himself that as soon as they had conquered Oz, he would transformthe old Nome into a marble statue and keep him in that form forever.

Ruggedo, on his part, decided that he could, by careful watching andlistening, surprise the boy's secret, and when he had learned themagic word he would transform Kiki Aru into a bundle of faggots andburn him up and so be rid of him.

This is always the way with wicked people. They cannot be trustedeven by one another. Ruggedo thought he was fooling Kiki, and Kikithought he was fooling Ruggedo; so both were pleased.

"It's a long way across the Desert," remarked the boy, "and thesands are hot and send up poisonous vapors. Let us wait until eveningand then fly across in the night when it will be cooler."

The former Nome King agreed to this, and the two spent the rest ofthat day in talking over their plans. When evening came they paid theinn-keeper and walked out to a little grove of trees that stood near by.

"Remain here for a few minutes and I'll soon be back," said Kiki,and walking swiftly away, he left the Nome standing in the grove.Ruggedo wondered where he had gone, but stood quietly in his placeuntil, all of a sudden, his form changed to that of a great eagle, andhe uttered a piercing cry of astonishment and flapped his wings in asort of panic. At once his eagle cry was answered from beyond thegrove, and another eagle, even larger and more powerful than thetransformed Ruggedo, came sailing through the trees and alightedbeside him.

"Now we are ready for the start," said the voice of Kiki, comingfrom the eagle.

Ruggedo realized that this time he had been outwitted. He hadthought Kiki would utter the magic word in his presence, and so hewould learn what it was, but the boy had been too shrewd for that.

As the two eagles mounted high into the air and began their flightacross the great Desert that separates the Land of Oz from all therest of the world, the Nome said:

"When I was King of the Nomes I had a magic way of workingtransformations that I thought was good, but it could not compare withyour secret word. I had to have certain tools and make passes and saya lot of mystic words before I could transform anybody."

"What became of your magic tools?" inquired Kiki.

"The Oz people took them all away from me--that horrid girl,Dorothy, and that terrible fairy, Ozma, the Ruler of Oz--at the timethey took away my underground kingdom and kicked me upstairs into thecold, heartless world."

"Why did you let them do that?" asked the boy.

"Well," said Ruggedo, "I couldn't help it. They rolled eggs atme--EGGS--dreadful eggs!--and if an egg even touches a Nome, he isruined for life."

"Is any kind of an egg dangerous to a Nome?"

"Any kind and every kind. An egg is the only thing I'm afraid of."