IN THE WICKER CASTLE No sooner were the Wizard of Oz and his followers well within the castle entrance when the big gates swung to with a clang and heavy bars dropped across them.

They looked at one another uneasily, but no one cared to speak of the incident.

If they were indeed prisoners in the wicker castle, it was evident they must find a way to escape, but their first duty was to attend to the errand on which they had come and seek the Royal Ozma, whom they believed to be a prisoner of the magician, and rescue her.
They found they had entered a square courtyard, from which an entrance led into the main building of the castle.

No person had appeared to greet them so far, although a gaudy peacock perched upon the wall cackled with laughter and said in its sharp, shrill voice, "Poor fools! Poor fools!" "I hope the peacock is mistaken," remarked the Frogman, but no one else paid any attention to the bird.

They were a little awed by the stillness and loneliness of the place.