"Who is Mustafa and why has he enchanted you?" demanded Crunch, rubbing his stone forehead noisily. Notta explained as much of their story as he thought the Stone Man would understand, and when he had finished Crunch gave a little spring that almost knocked them from the ledge. "Why, it is as clear as cobbles," he roared, bringing down his fist upon a rock and splintering it to fragments. "You are weaker than I and, as I have fully determined to help someone, let me help you. Where is this Mustafa of Mudge? Take me to him and I will pound him to powder and disperse him to the winds." Before Notta could answer Nick came flying back to assure them that he had really seen the Emerald City from the mountain top and that it lay scarcely a half day's journey away. "Then it seems to me," said Notta, who had been doing some quick thinking, "that the time has come for us to separate. Bob, Nick and I will hasten to this Emerald City and appeal to Ozma, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. Meanwhile the Cowardly Lion can start toward Mudge and thus Mustafa's ring will not betray us. But before he reaches there we will have found a way to help him." "And I will go with the Cowardly Lion," declared Crunch promptly, "for I would rather help him than any one else." "Hurrah!" cried Bob Up, and so it was all decided. Then Notta sat on the Cowardly Lion's back and he sprang down from the ledge. Next Snorer flew down with Bob, and the clown untied the rope that tied him to the lion. Immediately he and Bob turned blue, but when the Cowardly Lion took a few steps south, the blue quickly faded out. Notta was so relieved to be free that he turned six somersaults, stood on his head, and ran several paces on his hands, while Bob and Nick shouted with glee. "Crush and crumble me!" rasped the Stone Man, eying the clown in alarm, "is that the way men get about nowdays? The men I watched in the stone age never did that and I simply could not manage it, you know." "Don't try," begged Notta, and Nick hastened to assure him that most men walked in the usual fashion--one foot before the other. "Mudge should be exactly southwest from here, so come on, old Cave Man, let's be moving. Together we'll conquer the whole tribe of Mudgers," said the lion. "You won't have to," cried Notta, giving the Cowardly Lion an affectionate hug, "if this Wizard of Oz is as clever as he's said to be." Crunch waited impatiently while Nick and Bob bade the Cowardly Lion good-bye. Having stood around for seven centuries, he could not bear to waste another second, and when the Cowardly Lion at last declared himself ready to go he tramped off joyfully, each step shaking the ground like a small earthquake and enveloping the poor lion in a cloud of dust. "Good-bye!" called Bob Up shrilly, as they turned into a narrow rocky path and disappeared behind a small mountain. "Good-bye!" roared the Cowardly Lion, bravely waving his tail in farewell.