"Oh, one can leave the Valley easily enough," answered the man's
voice; "but to do so you must enter a far less pleasant country. As
for reaching the top of the earth, I have never heard that it is
possible to do that, and if you succeeded in getting there you would
probably fall off."

"Oh, no," said Dorothy, "we've been there, and we know."

"The Valley of Voe is certainly a charming place," resumed the Wizard;
"but we cannot be contented in any other land than our own, for long.
Even if we should come to unpleasant places on our way it is
necessary, in order to reach the earth's surface, to keep moving on
toward it."

"In that case," said the man, "it will be best for you to cross our
Valley and mount the spiral staircase inside the Pyramid Mountain.
The top of that mountain is lost in the clouds, and when you reach it
you will be in the awful Land of Naught, where the Gargoyles live."

"What are Gargoyles?" asked Zeb.

"I do not know, young sir. Our greatest Champion, Overman-Anu, once
climbed the spiral stairway and fought nine days with the Gargoyles
before he could escape them and come back; but he could never be
induced to describe the dreadful creatures, and soon afterward a bear
caught him and ate him up."

The wanders were rather discouraged by this gloomy report, but Dorothy
said with a sigh: