"Up?" roared Ruggedo, stamping his foot viciously. "Those foolish
mortals are up, that's what! And they want to come down."

"Down here?" inquired Kaliko.

"Yes!"

"How do you know?" continued the Chamberlain, yawning again.

"I feel it in my bones," said Ruggedo. "I can always feel it when those
hateful earth-crawlers draw near to my Kingdom. I am positive, Kaliko,
that mortals are this very minute on their way here to annoy me--and I
hate mortals more than I do catnip tea!"

"Well, what's to be done?" demanded the nome.

"Look through your spyglass, and see where the invaders are," commanded
the King.

So Kaliko went to a tube in the wall of rock and put his eye to it. The
tube ran from the cavern up to the side of the mountain and turned
several curves and corners, but as it was a magic spyglass Kaliko was
able to see through it just as easily as if it had been straight.

"Ho--hum," said he. "I see 'em, Your Majesty."

"What do they look like?" inquired the Monarch.

"That's a hard question to answer, for a queerer assortment of
creatures I never yet beheld," replied the nome. "However, such a
collection of curiosities may prove dangerous. There's a copper man,
worked by machinery--"

"Bah! that's only Tik-Tok," said Ruggedo. "I'm not afraid of him. Why,
only the other day I met the fellow and threw him down a well."

"Then some one must have pulled him out again," said Kaliko. "And
there's a little girl--"

"Dorothy?" asked Ruggedo, jumping up in fear.

"No; some other girl. In fact, there are several girls, of various
sizes; but Dorothy is not with them, nor is Ozma."

"That's good!" exclaimed the King, sighing in relief.

Kaliko still had his eye to the spyglass.

"I see," said he, "an army of men from Oogaboo. They are all officers
and carry swords. And there is a Shaggy Man--who seems very
harmless--and a little donkey with big ears."

"Pooh!" cried Ruggedo, snapping his fingers in scorn. "I've no fear of
such a mob as that. A dozen of my nomes can destroy them all in a
jiffy."

"I'm not so sure of that," said Kaliko. "The people of Oogaboo are hard
to destroy, and I believe the Rose Princess is a fairy. As for
Polychrome, you know very well that the Rainbow's Daughter cannot be
injured by a nome."

"Polychrome! Is she among them?" asked the King.

"Yes; I have just recognized her."

"Then these people are coming here on no peaceful errand," declared
Ruggedo, scowling fiercely. "In