"And I will go with the Cowardly Lion," declared Crunch promptly, "for I would rather help him than any one else."
"Hurrah!" cried Bob Up, and so it was all decided. Then Notta sat on the Cowardly Lion's back and he sprang down from the ledge. Next Snorer flew down with Bob, and the clown untied the rope that tied him to the lion. Immediately he and Bob turned blue, but when the Cowardly Lion took a few steps south, the blue quickly faded out. Notta was so relieved to be free that he turned six somersaults, stood on his head, and ran several paces on his hands, while Bob and Nick shouted with glee.
"Crush and crumble me!" rasped the Stone Man, eying the clown in alarm, "is that the way men get about nowdays? The men I watched in the stone age never did that and I simply could not manage it, you know."
"Don't try," begged Notta, and Nick hastened to assure him that most men walked in the usual fashion—one foot before the other.
"Mudge should be exactly southwest from here, so come on, old Cave Man, let's be moving. Together we'll conquer the whole tribe of Mudgers," said the lion.
"You won't have to," cried Notta, giving the Cowardly Lion an affectionate hug, "if this Wizard of Oz is as clever as he's said to be."
Crunch waited impatiently while Nick and Bob bade the Cowardly Lion good-bye. Having stood around for seven centuries, he could not bear to waste another second, and when the Cowardly Lion at last declared himself ready to go he tramped off joyfully, each step shaking the ground like a small earthquake and enveloping the poor lion in a cloud of dust.