Hundreds of monkeys, apes,
baboons and orangoutangs had gathered round, and their wild chatter
could be heard a mile away. But the Gray Ape soon hushed the babel of
sounds, and the Wizard lost no time in breaking the enchantments.
First one and then another giant soldier disappeared and became an
ordinary monkey again, and the six were shortly returned to their
friends in their proper forms.
This action made the Wizard very popular with the great army of
monkeys, and when the Gray Ape announced that the Wizard wanted to
borrow twelve monkeys to take to the Emerald City for a couple of
weeks, and asked for volunteers, nearly a hundred offered to go,
so great was their confidence in the little man who had saved
their comrades.
The Wizard selected a dozen that seemed intelligent and
good-tempered, and then he opened his black bag and took out a queerly
shaped dish that was silver on the outside and gold on the inside.
Into this dish he poured a powder and set fire to it. It made a thick
smoke that quite enveloped the twelve monkeys, as well as the form of
the Wizard, but when the smoke cleared away the dish had been changed
to a golden cage with silver bars, and the twelve monkeys had become
about three inches high and were all seated comfortably inside the cage.
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