ing and
said:

"I'm sorry we couldn't believe what the little Pink Bear said, 'cause we
don't want to make you feel bad by doubting him. There must be a
mistake, somewhere, and we prob'ly don't understand just what the little
Pink Bear means. Will you let me ask him one more question?"

The Lavender Bear King was a good-natured bear, considering how he was
made and stuffed and jointed, so he accepted Dorothy's apology and
turned the crank and allowed the little girl to question his wee Pink
Bear.

"Is Ozma _really_ in this hole?" asked Dorothy.

"No," said the little Pink Bear.

This surprised everybody. Even the Bear King was now puzzled by the
contradictory statements of his oracle.

"Where _is_ she?" asked the King.

"Here, among you," answered the little Pink Bear.

"Well," said Dorothy, "this beats me, entirely! I guess the little Pink
Bear has gone crazy."

"Perhaps," called Scraps, who was rapidly turning "cart-wheels" all
around the perplexed group, "Ozma is invisible."

"Of course!" cried Betsy. "That would account for it."

"Well, I've noticed that people can speak, even when they've been made
invisible," said the Wizard. And then he looked all around him and said
in a solemn voice: "Ozma, are you here?"

There was no reply. Dorothy asked the question, too, and so did
Button-Bright and Trot and Betsy; but none received any reply at all.

"It's strange--it's terrible strange!" muttered Cayke the Cookie Cook.
"I was sure that the little Pink Bear always tells the truth."

"I still believe in his honesty," said the Frogman, and this tribute so
pleased the Bear King that he gave these last speakers grateful looks,
but still gazed sourly on the others.

"Come to think of it," remarked the Wizard, "Ozma couldn't be invisible,
for she is a fairy and fairies cannot be made invisible against their
will. Of course she could be imprisoned by the magician, or even
enchanted, or transformed, in spite of her fairy powers; but Ugu could
not render her invisible by any magic at his command."

"I wonder if she's been transformed into Button-Bright?" said Dorothy
nervously. Then she looked steadily at the boy and asked: "Are you Ozma?
Tell me truly!"

Button-Bright laughed.

"You're getting rattled, Dorothy," he replied. "Nothing ever enchants
_me_. If I were Ozma, do you think I'd have tumbled into that hole?"

"Anyhow," said the Wizard, "Ozma would never try to deceive her friends,
or prevent them fro