He seized the dangling strap firmly in his square mouth and in the same way that Scraps had done swung himself over the gulf. He let go the strap at the right moment and fell upon the first whirling mountain. Then he bounded to the next one back of it—not on his feet but “all mixed up,” as Trot said—and then he shot across to another mountain, disappearing from view just as the Patchwork Girl had done.

“It seems to work, all right,” remarked Button-Bright. “I guess I’ll try it.”

“Wait a minute,” urged the Wizard. “Before any more of us make this desperate leap into the beyond, we must decide whether all will go, or if some of us will remain behind.”

“Do you s’pose it hurt them much, to bump against those mountains?” asked Trot.

“I don’t s’pose anything could hurt Scraps or the Woozy,” said Dorothy, “and nothing can hurt me, because I wear the Magic Belt. So, as I’m anxious to find Ozma, I mean to swing myself across, too.”

“I’ll take my chances,” decided Button-Bright.

“I’m sure it will hurt dreadfully, and I’m afraid to do it,” said the Lion, who was already trembling; “but I shall do it if Dorothy does.”

“Well, that will leave Betsy and the Mule and Trot,” said the Wizard; “for of course, I shall go, that I may look after Dorothy. Do you two girls think you can find your way back home again?” he asked, addressing Trot and Betsy.

“I’m not afraid; not much, that is,” said Trot. “It looks risky, I know, but I’m sure I can stand it if the others can.”

“If it wasn’t for leaving Hank,” began Betsy, in a hesitating voice; but the Mule interrupted her by saying:

“Go ahead, if you want to, and I’ll come after you. A mule is as brave as a lion, any day.”

“Braver,” said the Lion, “for I’m a coward, friend Hank, and you are not. But of course the Sawhorse—”

“Oh, nothing ever hurts me,” asserted the Sawhorse calmly. “There’s never been any question about my going. I can’t take the Red Wagon, though.”

“No, we must leave the wagon,” said the Wizard; “and also we must leave our food and blankets, I fear. But if we can defy these Merry-Go-Round Mountains to stop us we won’t mind the sacrifice of some of our comforts.”

“No one knows where we’re going to land!” remarked the Lion, in a voice that sounded as if he were going to cry.

“We may not land at all,” replied Hank; “but the best way to find out what will happen to us is to swing across, as Scraps and the Woozy have done.”

“I think I shall go last,” said the Wizard; “so who wants to go first?”

“I’ll go,” decided Dorothy.