the Queen and her children prisoners."

Hearing these words, Langwidere suddenly became quiet.

"I wish you could, indeed, free my aunt and her ten royal children,"
said she, eagerly. "For if they were restored to their proper forms and
station they could rule the Kingdom of Ev themselves, and that would
save me a lot of worry and trouble. At present there are at least ten
minutes every day that I must devote to affairs of state, and I would
like to be able to spend my whole time in admiring my beautiful heads."

"Then we will presently discuss this matter," said Ozma, "and try to
find a way to liberate your aunt and cousins. But first you must
liberate another prisoner--the little girl you have locked up in your
tower."

[Illustration: "WHAT A DANGEROUS LADY!" MURMURED THE SCARECROW]

"Of course," said Langwidere, readily. "I had forgotten all about her.
That was yesterday, you know, and a Princess cannot be expected to
remember today what she did yesterday. Come with me, and I will release
the prisoner at once."

So Ozma followed her, and they passed up the stairs that led to the room
in the tower.

While they were gone Ozma's followers remained in the drawing-room, and
the Scarecrow was leaning against a form that he had mistaken for a
copper statue when a harsh, metallic voice said suddenly in his ear:

"Get off my foot, please. You are scratch-ing my pol-ish."

"Oh, excuse me!" he replied, hastily drawing back. "Are you alive?"

"No," said Tiktok, "I am on-ly a ma-chine. But I can think and speak and
act, when I am pro-per-ly wound up. Just now my ac-tion is run down, and
Dor-o-thy has the key to it."

"That's all right," replied the Scarecrow. "Dorothy will soon be free,
and then she'll attend to your works. But it must be a great misfortune
not to be alive. I'm sorry for you."

"Why?" asked Tiktok.

"Because you have no brains, as I have," said the Scarecrow.

"Oh, yes, I have," returned Tiktok. "I am fit-ted with Smith & Tin-ker's
Improved Com-bi-na-tion Steel Brains. They are what make me think. What
sort of brains are you fit-ted with?"

"I don't know," admitted the Scarecrow. "They were given to me by the
great Wizard of Oz, and I didn't get a chance to examine them before he
put them in. But they work splendidly and my conscience is very active.
Have you a conscience?"

"No," said Tiktok.

"And no heart, I suppose?" added the Tin Woodman, who had been listening
with interest to this conv