.

"I'm glad of that!" she exclaimed. "It makes me quite happy to be so
near my old friends. The scarecrow I told you of, Billina, is the King
of the Land of Oz."

"Par-don me. He is not the king now," said Tiktok.

"He was when I left there," declared Dorothy.

"I know," said Tiktok, "but there was a rev-o-lu-tion in the Land of Oz,
and the Scare-crow was de-posed by a sol-dier wo-man named Gen-er-al
Jin-jur. And then Jin-jur was de-posed by a lit-tle girl named Oz-ma,
who was the right-ful heir to the throne and now rules the land un-der
the ti-tle of Oz-ma of Oz."

"That is news to me," said Dorothy, thoughtfully. "But I s'pose lots of
things have happened since I left the Land of Oz. I wonder what has
become of the Scarecrow, and of the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion.
And I wonder who this girl Ozma is, for I never heard of her before."

But Tiktok did not reply to this. He had turned around again to resume
his thinking.

Dorothy packed the rest of the food back into the pail, so as not to be
wasteful of good things, and the yellow hen forgot her dignity far
enough to pick up all of the scattered crumbs, which she ate rather
greedily, although she had so lately pretended to despise the things
that Dorothy preferred as food.

By this time Tiktok approached them with his stiff bow.

"Be kind e-nough to fol-low me," he said, "and I will lead you a-way
from here to the town of Ev-na, where you will be more com-for-ta-ble,
and also I will pro-tect you from the Wheel-ers."

"All right," answered Dorothy, promptly. "I'm ready!"

[Illustration]

The Heads of Langwidere

[Illustration]

They walked slowly down the path between the rocks, Tiktok going first,
Dorothy following him, and the yellow hen trotting along last of all.

At the foot of the path the copper man leaned down and tossed aside with
ease the rocks that cumbered the way. Then he turned to Dorothy and
said:

"Let me car-ry your din-ner-pail."

She placed it in his right hand at once, and the copper fingers closed
firmly over the stout handle.

Then the little procession marched out upon the level sands.

As soon as the three Wheelers who were guarding the mound saw them, they
began to shout their wild cries and rolled swiftly toward the little
group, as if to capture them or bar their way. But when the foremost had
approached near enough, Tiktok swung the tin dinner-pail and struck the
Wheeler a sharp blow over its head with