Old Ruggedo quickly recovered his wits and muttered to himself:
"This boy is the goose, although it is I who wear the goose's shape.
I will be gentle with him now, and fierce with him when I have him in
my power." Then he said aloud to Kiki:
"Well, hereafter I will be content to acknowledge you the master.
You bungled things, as I said, but we can still conquer Oz."
"How?" asked the boy.
"First give me back the shape of the Li-Mon-Eag, and then we can
talk together more conveniently," suggested the Nome.
"Wait a moment, then," said Kiki, and climbed higher up the tree.
There he whispered the Magic Word and the Goose became a Li-Mon-Eag,
as he had been before.
"Good!" said the Nome, well pleased, as Kiki joined him by dropping
down from the tree. "Now let us find a quiet place where we can talk
without being overheard by the beasts."
So the two started away and crossed the forest until they came to a
place where the trees were not so tall nor so close together, and
among these scattered trees was another clearing, not so large as the
first one, where the meeting of the beasts had been held.
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