rue," agreed the man. He looked thoughtfully from one to another of
them for a while and then he turned his head over his shoulder and
said: "Never mind the fire and pincers, my good brothers. It will be
best to take these strangers to the Private Citizen."

"Very well, Tubekins," responded a Voice, deep and powerful, that
seemed to come out of the air, for the speaker was invisible.

All our friends gave a jump, at this. Even Polychrome was so startled
that her gauze draperies fluttered like a banner in a breeze. Shaggy
shook his head and sighed; Queen Ann looked very unhappy; the officers
clung to each other, trembling violently.

But soon they gained courage to look more closely at the Peculiar
Person. As he was a type of all the inhabitants of this extraordinary
land whom they afterward met, I will try to tell you what he looked
like.

His face was beautiful, but lacked expression. His eyes were large and
blue in color and his teeth finely formed and white as snow. His hair
was black and bushy and seemed inclined to curl at the ends. So far no
one could find any fault with his appearance. He wore a robe of
scarlet, which did not cover his arms and extended no lower than his
bare knees. On the bosom of the robe was embroidered a terrible
dragon's head, as horrible to look at as the man was beautiful. His
arms and legs were left bare and the skin of one arm was bright yellow
and the skin of the other arm a vivid green. He had one blue leg and
one pink one, while both his feet--which showed through the open
sandals he wore--were jet black.

Betsy could not decide whether these gorgeous colors were dyes or the
natural tints of the skin, but while she was thinking it over the man
who had been called "Tubekins" said:

"Follow me to the Residence--all of you!"

But just then a Voice exclaimed: "Here's another of them, Tubekins,
lying in the water of the fountain."

"Gracious!" cried Betsy; "it must be Tik-Tok, and he'll drown."

"Water is a bad thing for his clockworks, anyway," agreed Shaggy, as
with one accord they all started for the fountain. But before they
could reach it, invisible hands raised Tik-Tok from the marble basin
and set him upon his feet beside it, water dripping from every joint of
his copper body.

"Ma--ny tha--tha--tha--thanks!" he said; and then his copper jaws
clicked together and he could say no more. He next made an attempt to
walk but after several awkward trials found he could not mov