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"
Did any strange person come in or out of the city on the night before last
when Ozma was stolen?" asked Dorothy.
"
"
No indeed, Princess," answered the Guardian of the Gates.
Of course not," said the Wizard. "Anyone clever enough to steal all the things
we have lost would not mind the barrier of a wall like this in the least. I think
the thief must have flown through the air, for otherwise he could not have
stolen from Ozma's royal palace and Glinda's faraway castle in the same
night. Moreover, as there are no airships in Oz and no way for airships from
the outside world to get into this country, I believe the thief must have flown
from place to place by means of magic arts which neither Glinda nor I
understand."
On they went, and before the gates closed behind them, Toto managed to
dodge through them. The country surrounding the Emerald City was thickly
settled, and for a while our friends rode over nicely paved roads which wound
through a fertile country dotted with beautiful houses, all built in the quaint
Oz fashion. In the course of a few hours, however, they had left the tilled
fields and entered the Country of the Winkies, which occupies a quarter of all
the territory in the Land of Oz but is not so well known as many other parts of
Ozma's fairyland. Long before night the travelers had crossed the Winkie
River near to the Scarecrow's Tower (which was now vacant) and had entered
the Rolling Prairie where few people live. They asked everyone they met for
news of Ozma, but none in this district had seen her or even knew that she
had been stolen. And by nightfall they had passed all the farmhouses and
were obliged to stop and ask for shelter at the hut of a lonely shepherd. When
they halted, Toto was not far behind. The little dog halted, too, and stealing
softly around the party, he hid himself behind the hut.
The shepherd was a kindly old man and treated the travelers with much
courtesy. He slept out of doors that night, giving up his hut to the three girls,
who made their beds on the floor with the blankets they had brought in the
Red Wagon. The Wizard and Button-Bright also slept out of doors, and so did
the Cowardly Lion and Hank the Mule. But Scraps and the Sawhorse did not
sleep at all, and the Woozy could stay awake for a month at a time if he
wished to, so these three sat in a little group by themselves and talked
together all through the night.
In the darkness, the Cowardly Lion felt a shaggy little form nestling beside his
own, and he said sleepily, "Where did you come from, Toto?"
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