none of them would venture into the cavern.

"Well, I declare!" suddenly exclaimed the little Wizard. "What in the
world is this?"

They turned around and found a man standing on the floor in the center
of the cave, who bowed very politely when he saw he had attracted
their attention. He was a very old man, bent nearly double; but the
queerest thing about him was his white hair and beard. These were so
long that they reached to his feet, and both the hair and the beard
were carefully plaited into many braids, and the end of each braid
fastened with a bow of colored ribbon.

"Where did you come from?" asked Dorothy, wonderingly.

"No place at all," answered the man with the braids; "that is, not
recently. Once I lived on top the earth, but for many years I have
had my factory in this spot--half way up Pyramid Mountain."

"Are we only half way up?" enquired the boy, in a discouraged tone.

"I believe so, my lad," replied the braided man. "But as I have never
been in either direction, down or up, since I arrived, I cannot be
positive whether it is exactly half way or not."

"Have you a factory in this place?" asked the Wizard, who had been
examining the strange personage carefully.

"To be sure," said the other. "I am a great inventor, you must know,
and I manufacture my products in this lonely spot."