questioned
Dorothy.

"Don't ask me, my dear. Ugu doesn't tell me why he does things, I assure
you."

"Then we must go and ask him ourselves," declared the little girl.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," advised the Czarover, looking first
at the three girls and then at the boy and the little Wizard and finally
at the stuffed Patchwork Girl. "If Ugu has really stolen your Ozma, he
will probably keep her a prisoner, in spite of all your threats or
entreaties. And, with all his magical knowledge, he would be a dangerous
person to attack. Therefore, if you are wise, you will go home again and
find a new Ruler for the Emerald City and the Land of Oz. But perhaps it
isn't Ugu the Shoemaker who has stolen your Ozma."

"The only way to settle that question," replied the Wizard, "is to go to
Ugu's castle and see if Ozma is there. If she is, we will report the
matter to the great Sorceress, Glinda the Good, and I'm pretty sure she
will find a way to rescue our darling ruler from the Shoemaker."

"Well, do as you please," said the Czarover. "But, if you are all
transformed into hummingbirds or caterpillars, don't blame me for not
warning you."

They stayed the rest of that day in the City of Herku and were fed at
the royal table of the Czarover and given sleeping rooms in his palace.
The strong monarch treated them very nicely and gave the Wizard a little
golden vial of zosozo, to use if ever he or any of his party wished to
acquire great strength.

Even at the last the Czarover tried to persuade them not to go near Ugu
the Shoemaker, but they were resolved on the venture and the next
morning bade the friendly monarch a cordial good-bye and, mounting upon
their animals, left the Herkus and the City of Herku and headed for the
mountains that lay to the west.

The Truth Pond

[Illustration]

CHAPTER 13

It seems a long time since we have heard anything of the Frogman and
Cayke the Cookie Cook, who had left the Yip Country in search of the
diamond-studded gold dishpan which had been mysteriously stolen the same
night that Ozma had disappeared from the Emerald City. But you must
remember that while the Frogman and the Cookie Cook were preparing to
descend from their mountain-top, and even while on their way to the
farmhouse of Wiljon the Winkie, Dorothy and the Wizard and their friends
were encountering the adventures we have just related.

So it was that on the very morning when the travelers from the Emer