he pit, for she had her chin in the air and was careless where she
placed her feet. Then one of the nomes pulled a lever which replaced
the cover on the pit and made the officers of Oogaboo and their Queen
fast prisoners.

As for Tik-Tok, he kept straight on to the cavern where Ruggedo sat in
his throne and there he faced the Nome King and said:

"I here-by con-quer you in the name of Queen Ann So-forth of Oo-ga-boo,
whose Ar-my I am, and I de-clare that you are her pris-on-er!"

Ruggedo laughed at him.

"Where is this famous Queen?" he asked.

"She'll be here in a min-ute," said Tik-Tok. "Per-haps she stopped to
tie her shoe-string."

"Now, see here, Tik-Tok," began the Nome King, in a stern voice, "I've
had enough of this nonsense. Your Queen and her officers are all
prisoners, having fallen into my power, so perhaps you'll tell me what
you mean to do."

"My or-ders were to con-quer you," replied Tik-Tok, "and my
ma-chin-er-y has done the best it knows how to car-ry out those
or-ders."

Ruggedo pounded on his gong and Kaliko appeared, followed closely by
General Guph.

"Take this copper man into the shops and set him to work hammering
gold," commanded the King. "Being run by machinery he ought to be a
steady worker. He ought never to have been made, but since he exists I
shall hereafter put him to good use."

"If you try to cap-ture me," said Tik-Tok, "I shall fight."

"Don't do that!" exclaimed General Guph, earnestly, "for it will be
useless to resist and you might hurt some one."

But Tik-Tok raised his gun and took aim and not knowing what damage the
gun might do the nomes were afraid to face it.

While he was thus defying the Nome King and his high officials, Betsy
Bobbin rode calmly into the royal cavern, seated upon the back of Hank
the mule. The little girl had grown tired of waiting for "something to
happen" and so had come to see if Ruggedo had been conquered.

"Nails and nuggets!" roared the King; "how dare you bring that beast
here and enter my presence unannounced?"

"There wasn't anybody to announce me," replied Betsy. "I guess your
folks were all busy. Are you conquered yet?"

"No!" shouted the King, almost beside himself with rage.

"Then please give me something to eat, for I'm awful hungry," said the
girl. "You see, this conquering business is a good deal like waiting
for a circus parade; it takes a long time to get around and don't
amount to much anyhow."

The nomes were so m