"Oh, no, I don't," said the wizard, "and if you think Floo is a child, you are very much mistaken. He has been taught his trade very, very carefully. Why, he can even tell how many hairs there are in your pigtail. Tell him, Floo." And Floo, after examining the Viceroy's pigtail for a few moments, told him there were 3,672,491 hairs in it. "There," said the wizard, proudly, "what do you think of that?" "But," said the Viceroy, "how do I know he's right?" "Well," responded the wizard, "how do you know he's wrong? Have you ever counted the hairs in your pigtail, eh?" "N--o," said the Viceroy, slowly, "but--" "Then," said the wizard, "the less said the better." So Floo was picked out to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the Dancing Pearl, and the first thing the wizard did was to give him a list of people in Chow Chow that might have carried off the dancing girl. "To save time," he said, "you'd better turn 'em all into turnips at once, and then tell 'em you'll turn 'em back again if they'll confess their crime." But after Floo had turned all the people into turnips and told them he would turn them back if they confessed, he found that every one of them confessed without a moment's hesitation, which made things very confusing, for when you transform a thousand persons and each one says he stole a dancing girl when only one dancing girl was stolen, you do not know what to think. So the wizard told Floo he had better give up that line of investigation. "Now," continued the wizard, "the next thing is to know what to do? What do you think?" "Well," said Floo, "I believe it would be a good plan to pick out the person you think would never do such a thing as steal a dancing girl and go after him. And after you find him you'll probably find he did it. That is the way it always happens in the story books I've read." "All right," said Hoo Hoo, "suppose we try it. But it's going to be a tough job, I'm afraid." And indeed it was, for Floo and the wizard thought and thought until their heads ached trying to recall a person in Chow Chow who would not care to steal the Viceroy's dancing girl, but at last Floo gave a shout. "I have it," he cried. "I know of one person nobody would ever suspect, and that is the Hermit of Hong. He hates everybody--ladies most of all--and the only thing he enjoys is being by himself. So if the story books are right he must be the one who carried off the Dancing Pearl. I think I'll go to see him." "Go ahead, then," said the wizard. Then he handed Floo a book bound in leather. "Here," he said, "are a few simple instructions how to turn things into other things. I would suggest that you turn the Hermit into a lemon if you find it necessary. Good-by and good luck!" So Floo set off for the Hermit's cave and when he got there he found, as you already know, that the Hermit of Hong _had_ stolen the Dancing Pearl, and was enjoying himself immensely as he watched her whirl about.