"It's just as cozy as a little house," sighed Dorothy contentedly, as the Cowardly Lion, having glanced round in a discouraged way, seated himself in one of the green chairs and pressed his nose against the round window pane. "Won't we have fun, Liony, when we really get off?" "_Getting off_ will be the best fun of all," sniffed the lion, glancing briefly at the door. The Lion, as you probably have guessed, felt no enthusiasm for the trip. Once, much against his will, he had been carried to an island in the sky, and that experience had been more than enough. In his own mind he already had decided not to accompany the Wizard on his proposed flight. Yessir, when the party assembled for the trip he would just turn up missing and manage to stay behind. Immensely relieved by this secret decision, he ambled forward. "You will notice," the Wizard was pointing out briskly, "that I have done away with all controls and levers. On this board are all the buttons necessary to operate the ship." "Looks like an organ," observed Dorothy, squinting at the bright array of buttons set in the top of the table within easy reach of the first seat. "Must you play all those stops and starters to guide the plane?" "Not quite all," smiled the Wizard, "but if we wished to start, I'd first press this green button to depress the wings and inflate our balloon. Next, I'd push the button marked 'up' and, if I decided to go North, this 'North' button, as well. Then I'd use the wheel to hold her steady, and if I preferred to go up in a gradual way, I'd push this button marked 'zig.'" "And I suppose if you saw something interesting, or wished to dodge a mountain, you'd 'zag,'" suggested the Scarecrow, indicating the "zag" button with his pudgy finger. "Or you could 'spin,' 'spiral' or 'level-off'--" "Stop! Stop!" panted the Cowardly Lion, clapping his paw to one eye, "all this up-zig and down-zig makes me positively giddy!" "It does seem a little complicated," said Dorothy, looking dubiously at the Wizard's button-board. "Why, it's perfectly simple!" the Wizard assured her brightly. "All you have to do is touch the right buttons at the right time!" "But--" The Scarecrow, who had been about to ask another question, whirled round on one heel, and flopped on his back in the aisle. The Cowardly Lion skidded rapidly past, to wedge under the little dining table while Dorothy and the Wizard clung to the steering board to keep from falling. For--a terrific roar like the tearing of a gigantic sheet had made the Ozpril tremble like a leaf. There came a sudden flash of silver smoke, and the gradual dying away of all sound. Then--a complete and ominous silence. "WHAT? WHAT!!! Why, it's _gone_!" shouted the Wizard, racing over to the door and staring amazedly at the empty space occupied a moment before by the Oztober. Then he glanced up into the starlit expanse of sky.