r and woven into numerous artistic patterns, but
it reached from the ground to branches above the heads of the girls and
formed a sort of fence that hedged them in.

"It doesn't look very strong, though," said Dorothy. "I wonder if we
couldn't break through." She tried but found the web stronger than it
seemed. All her efforts could not break a single thread.

"We must go back, I think, and try to get around this peculiar web,"
Ozma decided.

So they turned to the right and, following the web found that it seemed
to spread in a regular circle. On and on they went until finally Ozma
said they had returned to the exact spot from which they had started.
"Here is a handkerchief you dropped when we were here before," she said
to Dorothy.

"In that case, they must have built the web behind us, after we walked
into the trap," exclaimed the little girl.

"True," agreed Ozma, "an enemy has tried to imprison us."

"And they did it, too," said Dorothy. "I wonder who it was."

"It's a spider-web, I'm quite sure," returned Ozma, "but it must be the
work of enormous spiders."

"Quite right!" cried a voice behind them. Turning quickly around they
beheld a huge purple spider sitting not two yards away and regarding
them with its small bright eyes.

Then there crawled from the bushes a dozen more great purple spiders,
which saluted the first one and said:

"The web is finished, O King, and the strangers are our prisoners."

Dorothy did not like the looks of these spiders at all. They had big
heads, sharp claws, small eyes and fuzzy hair all over their purple
bodies.

"They look wicked," she whispered to Ozma. "What shall we do?"

Ozma gazed upon the spiders with a serious face.

"What is your object in making us prisoners?" she inquired.

"We need someone to keep house for us," answered the Spider King.
"There is sweeping and dusting to be done, and polishing and washing of
dishes, and that is work my people dislike to do. So we decided that if
any strangers came our way we would capture them and make them our
servants."

"I am Princess Ozma, Ruler of all Oz," said the girl with dignity.

"Well, I am King of all Spiders," was the reply, "and that makes me
your master. Come with me to my palace and I will instruct you in your
work."

"I won't," said Dorothy indignantly. "We won't have anything to do with
you."

"We'll see about that," returned the Spider in a severe tone, and the
next instant he made a dive strai