d.

"I know," said Ojo. "Jellia Jamb told them. She has been asking
everywhere if anyone has seen Ozma."

"That's too bad," observed Dorothy, frowning.

"Why?" asked Button-Bright.

"There wasn't any use making all our people unhappy, till we were dead
certain that Ozma can't be found."

[Illustration]

"Pshaw," said Button-Bright, "It's nothing to get lost. I've been lost
lots of times."

"That's true," admitted Trot, who knew that the boy had a habit of
getting lost and then finding himself again; "but it's diff'rent with
Ozma. She's the Ruler of all this big fairyland and we're 'fraid that
the reason she's lost is because somebody has stolen her away."

"Only wicked people steal," said Ojo. "Do you know of any wicked people
in Oz, Dorothy?"

"No," she replied.

"They're here, though," cried Scraps, dancing up to them and then
circling around the group. "Ozma's stolen; someone in Oz stole her; only
wicked people steal; so someone in Oz is wicked!"

There was no denying the truth of this statement. The faces of all of
them were now solemn and sorrowful.

"One thing is sure," said Button-Bright, after a time, "if Ozma has been
stolen, someone ought to find her and punish the thief."

"There may be a lot of thieves," suggested Trot gravely, "and in this
fairy country they don't seem to have any soldiers or policemen."

"There is one soldier," claimed Dorothy. "He has green whiskers and a
gun and is a Major-General; but no one is afraid of either his gun or
his whiskers, 'cause he's so tender-hearted that he wouldn't hurt a
fly."

"Well, a soldier's a soldier," said Betsy, "and perhaps he'd hurt a
wicked thief if he wouldn't hurt a fly. Where is he?"

"He went fishing about two months ago and hasn't come back yet,"
explained Button-Bright.

"Then I can't see that he will be of much use to us in this trouble,"
sighed little Trot. "But p'raps Ozma, who is a fairy, can get away from
the thieves without any help from anybody."

"She _might_ be able to," admitted Dorothy, reflectively, "but if she
had the power to do that, it isn't likely she'd have let herself be
stolen. So the thieves must have been even more powerful in magic than
our Ozma."

There was no denying this argument and, although they talked the matter
over all the rest of that day, they were unable to decide how Ozma had
been stolen against her will or who had committed the dreadful deed.

Toward evening the Wizard came back, riding sl