And Floo, after examining the Viceroy's pigtail for a few moments, told him there were 3,672,491 hairs in it.
"There," said the wizard, proudly, "what do you think of that?"
"But," said the Viceroy, "how do I know he's right?"
"Well," responded the wizard, "how do you know he's wrong? Have you ever counted the hairs in your pigtail, eh?"
"N—o," said the Viceroy, slowly, "but—"
"Then," said the wizard, "the less said the better."
So Floo was picked out to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the Dancing Pearl, and the first thing the wizard did was to give him a list of people in Chow Chow that might have carried off the dancing girl.
"To save time," he said, "you'd better turn 'em all into turnips at once, and then tell 'em you'll turn 'em back again if they'll confess their crime."
But after Floo had turned all the people into turnips and told them he would turn them back if they confessed, he found that every one of them confessed without a moment's hesitation, which made things very confusing, for when you transform a thousand persons and each one says he stole a dancing girl when only one dancing girl was stolen, you do not know what to think. So the wizard told Floo he had better give up that line of investigation.
"Now," continued the wizard, "the next thing is to know what to do? What do you think?"