wl of water,
and began mopping away the broken eggs from his master's face. In a few
minutes, and while all the party stood looking on, the King regained
the use of his eyes, and the first thing he did was to glare wickedly
upon the Scarecrow and exclaim:

"I'll make you suffer for this, you hay-stuffed dummy! Don't you know
eggs are poison to Nomes?"

"Really," said the Scarecrow, "they _don't_ seem to agree with you,
although I wonder why."

"They were strictly fresh and above suspicion," said Billina. "You ought
to be glad to get them."

"I'll transform you all into scorpions!" cried the King, angrily, and
began waving his arms and muttering magic words.

But none of the people became scorpions, so the King stopped and looked
at them in surprise.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"Why, you are not wearing your magic belt," replied the Chief Steward,
after looking the King over carefully. "Where is it? What have you done
with it?"

The Nome King clapped his hand to his waist, and his rock colored face
turned white as chalk.

"It's gone," he cried, helplessly. "It's gone, and I am ruined!"

Dorothy now stepped forward and said:

"Royal Ozma, and you, Queen of Ev, I welcome you and your people back to
the land of the living. Billina has saved you from your troubles, and
now we will leave this drea'ful place, and return to Ev as soon as
poss'ble."

While the child spoke they could all see that she wore the magic belt,
and a great cheer went up from all her friends, which was led by the
voices of the Scarecrow and the private. But the Nome King did not join
them. He crept back onto his throne like a whipped dog, and lay there
bitterly bemoaning his defeat.

"But we have not yet found my faithful follower, the Tin Woodman," said
Ozma to Dorothy, "and without him I do not wish to go away."

"Nor I," replied Dorothy, quickly. "Wasn't he in the palace?"

"He must be there," said Billina; "but I had no clew to guide me in
guessing the Tin Woodman, so I must have missed him."

"We will go back into the rooms," said Dorothy. "This magic belt, I am
sure, will help us to find our dear old friend."

So she re-entered the palace, the doors of which still stood open, and
everyone followed her except the Nome King, the Queen of Ev and Prince
Evring. The mother had taken the little Prince in her lap and was
fondling and kissing him lovingly, for he was her youngest born.

But the others went with Dorothy, and when she