lot of good just now."

"What is your Magic Belt?" asked Polychrome.

"It's a thing I captured from the Nome King one day, and it can do 'most
any wonderful thing. But I left it with Ozma, you know; 'cause magic
won't work in Kansas, but only in fairy countries."

"Is this a fairy country?" asked Button-Bright.

"I should think you'd know," said the little girl, gravely. "If it
wasn't a fairy country you couldn't have a fox head and the shaggy man
couldn't have a donkey head, and the Rainbow's Daughter would be
invis'ble."

"What's that?" asked the boy.

"You don't seem to know anything, Button-Bright. Invis'ble is a thing
you can't see."

"Then Toto's invisible," declared the boy, and Dorothy found he was
right. Toto had disappeared from view, but they could hear him barking
furiously among the heaps of grey rock ahead of them.

[Illustration]

They moved forward a little faster to see what the dog was barking at,
and found perched upon a point of rock by the roadside a curious
creature. It had the form of a man, middle-sized and rather slender and
graceful; but as it sat silent and motionless upon the peak they could
see that its face was black as ink, and it wore a black cloth costume
made like a union suit and fitting tight to its skin. Its hands were
black, too, and its toes curled down, like a bird's. The creature was
black all over except its hair, which was fine, and yellow, banged in
front across the black forehead and cut close at the sides. The eyes,
which were fixed steadily upon the barking dog, were small and sparkling
and looked like the eyes of a weasel.

"What in the world do you s'pose that is?" asked Dorothy in a hushed
voice, as the little group of travelers stood watching the strange
creature.

"Don't know," said Button-Bright.

The thing gave a jump and turned half around, sitting in the same place
but with the other side of its body facing them. Instead of being black,
it was now pure white, with a face like that of a clown in a circus and
hair of a brilliant purple. The creature could bend either way, and its
white toes now curled the same way the black ones on the other side had
done.

"It has a face both front and back," whispered Dorothy, wonderingly;
"only there's no back at all, but two fronts."

Having made the turn, the being sat motionless as before, while Toto
barked louder at the white man than he had done at the black one.

"Once," said the shaggy man, "I had a jump