The great banquet hall seemed suddenly deserted, and except for faint squeaks and muffled screams quite silent. Shirley Sunshine, hurrying around the table, clasped Ozma's hands and both girls stared in stunned silence at Jack, who was calmly replacing his head. "Why, where have they gone?" cried Ozma. Then all at once she saw, for tumbling from the chairs, scurrying under tables and vainly trying to hide themselves, was a host of men no bigger than brownies. "They're shrunk," shouted Jack delightedly. "Ha there, Mogodore the Mighty, mighty little you are now!" Fuming and raging, the midget baron tried to quiet his frightened retainers, but when Toto, Dorothy's little dog, came bounding through the doorway, he fled ignominiously and hid behind the hearth broom. "Good dog Toto, drive them in the corner," approved Jack and Toto, much as a shepherd dog chases sheep, drove the terrified horde of invaders into a corner and gravely sat down to watch them, snapping at any who tried to escape and snuffing at one and then another most curiously. "It was the forbidden flagon," explained Jack, as Ozma dropped into a chair and looked in complete bewilderment at the brownie baron and his band. "Is anyone hurt? Did I come in time?" "Yes! Yes!" sighed Ozma, pushing back her tumbled curls. "But how did you know? Where have you been, Jack dear?" "Where haven't I been," puffed Jack Pumpkinhead, striding excitedly up and down. "Say, what's that noise? Where is everybody?" "Oh!" cried Ozma, jumping up hurriedly. "The others are in the garden. We must free them at once." But before Shirley Sunshine, Ozma or Jack were halfway to the door it burst open, and the whole company of courtiers and celebrities came charging into the banquet hall. "Surrender, villains," bellowed Sir Hokus, glaring around furiously. "Where is that braggart Baron!" "We'll pull his nose! We'll tweak his ears! Glinda the Good has come, she's here!" exulted Scraps, shaking her cotton fists joyfully, for she had been immediately restored to her own cheerful self by the Good Sorceress of the South. Glinda, in her lovely red robes and head-dress, peered sternly over Scraps' shoulder, ready to bring her strongest magic into play. Seeing no one in the room but Ozma, Jack and Shirley Sunshine, they all stopped short; then catching sight of Mogodore and his midgets, cowering in the corner, they surged forward in still greater astonishment. "What happened?" demanded Dorothy, seizing Ozma's hands. "The spearmen in the garden suddenly disappeared. Scraps reached Glinda's castle and Glinda came and released us. But whatever happened in here? How did that monster grow so tiny?" "Perhaps Jack can tell you," sighed Ozma, who was as puzzled as anyone over the curious occurrences of the last few minutes. "I can," announced Jack, stepping forward importantly, "but it is a long, long story."