from rock to rock until she paused
beside the great dragon, who lay fast asleep.

"Wake up, Quox!" she cried. "It is time for you to act."

But Quox did not wake up. He lay as one in a trance, absolutely
motionless, with his enormous eyes tight closed. The eyelids had big
silver scales on them, like all the rest of his body.

Polychrome might have thought Quox was dead had she not known that
dragons do not die easily or had she not observed his huge body
swelling as he breathed. She picked up a piece of rock and pounded
against his eyelids with it, saying:

"Wake up, Quox--wake up!" But he would not waken.

"Dear me, how unfortunate!" sighed the lovely Rainbow's Daughter. "I
wonder what is the best and surest way to waken a dragon. All our
friends may be captured and destroyed while this great beast lies
asleep."

She walked around Quox two or three times, trying to discover some
tender place on his body where a thump or a punch might be felt; but he
lay extended along the rocks with his chin flat upon the ground and his
legs drawn underneath his body, and all that one could see was his
thick sky-blue skin--thicker than that of a rhinoceros--and his silver
scales.

Then, despairing at last of wakening the beast, and worried over the
fate of her friends, Polychrome again ran down to the entrance and
hurried along the passage into the Nome King's cavern.

Here she found Ruggedo lolling in his throne and smoking a long pipe.
Beside him stood General Guph and Kaliko, and ranged before the King
were the Rose Princess, Files and the Shaggy Man. Tik-Tok still lay
upon the floor, weighted down by the big diamond.

Ruggedo was now in a more contented frame of mind. One by one he had
met the invaders and easily captured them. The dreaded Love Magnet was
indeed in Shaggy's pocket, only a few feet away from the King, but
Shaggy was powerless to show it and unless Ruggedo's eyes beheld the
talisman it could not affect him. As for Betsy Bobbin and her mule, he
believed Kaliko had placed them in the Slimy Cave, while Ann and her
officers he thought safely imprisoned in the pit. Ruggedo had no fear
of Files or Ozga, but to be on the safe side he had ordered golden
handcuffs placed upon their wrists. These did not cause them any great
annoyance but prevented them from making an attack, had they been
inclined to do so.

The Nome King, thinking himself wholly master of the situation, was
laughing and jeering at his prisoners