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"Don't you know me, my dear?" said the Tin Soldier. "I'm your old
sweetheart, Captain Fyter!"
Nimmie Amee smiled at them both. Then she looked beyond them at the rest
of the party and smiled again. However, she seemed more amused than
pleased.
"Come in," she said, leading the way inside. "Even sweethearts are forgotten
after a time, but you and your friends are welcome."
The room they now entered was cosy and comfortable, being neatly
furnished and well swept and dusted. But they found someone there besides
Nimmie Amee. A man dressed in the attractive Munchkin costume was lazily
reclining in an easy chair, and he sat up and turned his eves on the visitors
with a cold and indifferent stare that was almost insolent. He did not even
rise from his seat to greet the strangers, but after glaring at them he looked
away with a scowl, as if they were of too little importance to interest him.
The tin men returned this man's stare with interest, but they did not look
away from him because neither of them seemed able to take his eyes off this
Munchkin, who was remarkable in having one tin arm quite like their own
tin arms.
"Seems to me," said Captain Fyter, in a voice that sounded harsh and
indignant, "that you, sir, are a vile impostor!"
"
Gently--gently!" cautioned the Scarecrow; "don't be rude to strangers,
Captain."
"Rude?" shouted the Tin Soldier, now very much provoked; "why, he's a
scoundrel--a thief! The villain is wearing my own head!"
"Yes," added the Tin Woodman, "and he's wearing my right arm! I can
recognize it by the two warts on the little finger."
"
Good gracious!" exclaimed Woot. "Then this must be the man whom old Ku-
Klip patched together and named Chopfyt."
The man now turned toward them, still scowling.
"Yes, that is my name," he said in a voice like a growl, "and it is absurd for
you tin creatures, or for anyone else, to claim my head, or arm, or any part
of me, for they are my personal property."
"
You? You're a Nobody!" shouted Captain Fyter.
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