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laughed merrily as she watched in the picture her friends trying to match

the pieces of Grandmother Gnit.

They seem happy and are doubtless having a good time," the girl Ruler

said to herself; and then she began to think of the many adventures she

herself had encountered with Dorothy.

The image of her friends now faded from the Magic Picture and the old

landscape slowly reappeared.

Ozma was thinking of the time when with Dorothy and her army she

marched to the Nome King's underground cavern, beyond the Land of Ev,

and forced the old monarch to liberate his captives, who belonged to the

Royal Family of Ev. That was the time when the Scarecrow nearly

frightened the Nome King into fits by throwing one of Billina's eggs at

him, and Dorothy had captured King Roquat's Magic Belt and brought it

away with her to the Land of Oz.

The pretty Princess smiled at the recollection of this adventure, and then

she wondered what had become of the Nome King since then. Merely

because she was curious and had nothing better to do, Ozma glanced at

the Magic Picture and wished to see in it the King of the Nomes.

Roquat the Red went every day into his tunnel to see how the work was

getting along and to hurry his workmen as much as possible. He was

there now, and Ozma saw him plainly in the Magic Picture.

She saw the underground tunnel, reaching far underneath the Deadly

Desert which separated the Land of Oz from the mountains beneath

which the Nome King had his extensive caverns. She saw that the

tunnel was being made in the direction of the Emerald City, and knew at

once it was being dug so that the army of Nomes could march through it

and attack her own beautiful and peaceful country.

I suppose King Roquat is planning revenge against us," she said,

musingly, "and thinks he can surprise us and make us his captives and

slaves. How sad it is that any one can have such wicked thoughts! But I

must not blame King Roquat too severely, for he is a Nome, and his

nature is not so gentle as my own."

Then she dismissed from her mind further thought of the tunnel, for that

time, and began to wonder if Aunt Em would not be happy as Royal

Mender of the Stockings of the Ruler of Oz. Ozma wore few holes in her

The Emerald City of Oz