ery agreeable person."

"It seems a very clever arrangement," said the Wizard. "And now, as
you are the principal person in Thi, I beg you to tell us if the Royal
Ozma is a captive in your city."

"No," answered the diamond-headed man. "We have no captives. No
strangers but yourselves are here, and we have never before heard of
the Royal Ozma."

"She rules over all of Oz," said Dorothy, "and so she rules your city
and you, because you are in the Winkie Country, which is a part of the
Land of Oz."

"It may be," returned the High Coco-Lorum, "for we do not study
geography and have never inquired whether we live in the Land of Oz or
not. And any Ruler who rules us from a distance and unknown to us is
welcome to the job. But what has happened to your Royal Ozma?"

"Someone has stolen her," said the Wizard. "Do you happen to have any
talented magician among your people, one who is especially clever, you
know?"

"No, none especially clever. We do some magic, of course, but it is
all of the ordinary kind. I do not think any of us has yet aspired to
stealing Rulers, either by magic or otherwise."

"Then we've come a long way for nothing!" exclaimed Trot regretfully.

"But we are going farther than this," asserted the Patchwork Girl,
bending her stuffed body backward until her yarn hair touched the floor
and then walking around on her hands with her feet in the air.

The High Coco-Lorum watched Scraps admiringly.

"You may go farther on, of course," said he, "but I advise you not to.
The Herkus live back of us, beyond the thistles and the twisting lands,
and they are not very nice people to meet, I assure you."

"Are they giants?" asked Betsy.

"They are worse than that," was the reply. "They have giants for their
slaves and they are so much stronger than giants that the poor slaves
dare not rebel for fear of being torn to pieces."

"How do you know?" asked Scraps.

"Everyone says so," answered the High Coco-Lorum.

"Have you seen the Herkus yourself?" inquired Dorothy.

"No, but what everyone says must be true, otherwise what would be the
use of their saying it?"

"We were told before we got here that you people hitch dragons to your
chariots," said the little girl.

"So we do," declared the High Coco-Lorum. "And that reminds me that I
ought to entertain you as strangers and my guests by taking you for a
ride around our splendid City of Thi." He touched a button, and a band
began to play. At lea