“The noise, of course. Don’t you remember how the Champion escaped them by shouting his battle-cry?”

“Suppose we escape down the stairs, too,” suggested the boy. “We have time, just now, and I’d rather face the invis’ble bears than those wooden imps.”

“No,” returned Dorothy, stoutly, “it won’t do to go back, for then we would never get home. Let’s fight it out.”

“That is what I advise,” said the Wizard. “They haven’t defeated us yet, and Jim is worth a whole army.”

But the Gargoyles were clever enough not to attack the horse the next time. They advanced in a great swarm, having been joined by many more of their kind, and they flew straight over Jim’s head to where the others were standing.

The Wizard raised one of his revolvers and fired into the throng of his enemies, and the shot resounded like a clap of thunder in that silent place.