s he jumped upon the back of the Sawhorse again and the quaint
steed, which never tired, dashed away at full speed.

The three girls were very much disturbed in mind. Even the Patchwork
Girl was more quiet than usual and seemed to realize that a great
calamity had overtaken them all. Ozma was a fairy of considerable power
and all the creatures in Oz, as well as the three mortal girls from the
outside world, looked upon her as their protector and friend. The idea
of their beautiful girl Ruler's being overpowered by an enemy and
dragged from her splendid palace a captive was too astonishing for them
to comprehend, at first. Yet what other explanation of the mystery could
there be?

"Ozma wouldn't go away willingly, without letting us know about it,"
asserted Dorothy; "and she wouldn't steal Glinda's Great Book of
Records, or the Wizard's magic, 'cause she could get them any time, just
by asking for 'em. I'm sure some wicked person has done all this."

"Someone in the Land of Oz?" asked Trot.

"Of course. No one could get across the Deadly Desert, you know, and no
one but an Oz person could know about the Magic Picture and the Book of
Records and the Wizard's magic, or where they were kept, and so be able
to steal the whole outfit before we could stop 'em. It _must_ be someone
who lives in the Land of Oz."

"But who--who--who?" asked Scraps. "That's the question. Who?"

"If we knew," replied Dorothy, severely, "we wouldn't be standing here,
doing nothing."

Just then two boys entered the courtyard and approached the group of
girls. One boy was dressed in the fantastic Munchkin costume--a blue
jacket and knickerbockers, blue leather shoes and a blue hat with a
high peak and tiny silver bells dangling from its rim--and this was Ojo
the Lucky, who had once come from the Munchkin Country of Oz and now
lived in the Emerald City. The other boy was an American, from
Philadelphia, and had lately found his way to Oz in the company of Trot
and Cap'n Bill. His name was Button-Bright; that is, everyone called him
by that name, and knew no other.

Button-Bright was not quite as big as the Munchkin boy, but he wore the
same kind of clothes, only they were of different colors. As the two
came up to the girls, arm in arm, Button-Bright remarked:

"Hello, Dorothy. They say Ozma is lost."

"_Who_ says so?" she asked.

"Everybody's talking about it, in the City," he replied.

"I wonder how the people found it out?" Dorothy aske