"Now Tiktok," said Dorothy, "the first thing to be done is to find away for us to escape from these rocks. The Wheelers are down below,you know, and threaten to kill us."

"There is no rea-son to be a-fraid of the Wheel-ers," said Tiktok, thewords coming more slowly than before.

"Why not?" she asked.

"Be-cause they are ag-g-g--gr-gr-r-r-"

He gave a sort of gurgle and stopped short, waving his handsfrantically until suddenly he became motionless, with one arm in theair and the other held stiffly before him with all the copper fingersof the hand spread out like a fan.

"Dear me!" said Dorothy, in a frightened tone. "What can the matter be?"

"He's run down, I suppose," said the hen, calmly. "You couldn't havewound him up very tight."

"I didn't know how much to wind him," replied the girl; "but I'll tryto do better next time."

She ran around the copper man to take the key from the peg at the backof his neck, but it was not there.

"It's gone!" cried Dorothy, in dismay.

"What's gone?" asked Billina.

"The key."

"It probably fell off when he made that low bow to you," returned thehen. "Look around, and see if you cannot find it again."

Dorothy looked, and the hen helped her, and by and by the girldiscovered the clock-key, which had fallen into a crack of the rock.

At once she wound up Tiktok's voice, taking care to give the key asmany turns as it would go around. She found this quite a task, as youmay imagine if you have ever tried to wind a clock, but the machineman's first words were to assure Dorothy that he would now run for atleast twenty-four hours.

"You did not wind me much, at first," he calmly said, "and I toldyou that long sto-ry a-bout King Ev-ol-do; so it is no won-der thatI ran down."

She next rewound the action clock-work, and then Billina advised her tocarry the key to Tiktok in her pocket, so it would not get lost again.

"And now," said Dorothy, when all this was accomplished, "tell me whatyou were going to say about the Wheelers."

"Why, they are noth-ing to be fright-en'd at," said the machine."They try to make folks be-lieve that they are ver-y ter-ri-ble, butas a mat-ter of fact the Wheel-ers are harm-less e-nough to an-y onethat dares to fight them. They might try to hurt a lit-tle girl likeyou, per-haps, be-cause they are ver-y mis-chiev-ous. But if I had aclub they would run a-way as soon as they saw me."

"Haven't you a club?" asked Dorothy.

"No," said Tiktok.

"And you won't find such a thing among these rocks, either," declaredthe yellow hen.

"Then what shall we do?" asked the girl.

"Wind up my think-works tight-ly, and I will try to think of someoth-er plan," said Tiktok.

So Dorothy rewound his thought machinery, and while he was thinkingshe decided to eat her dinner. Billina was already pecking away atthe cracks in the rocks, to find something to eat, so Dorothy sat downand opened her tin dinner-pail.

In the cover she found a small tank that was full of very nicelemonade. It was covered by a cup, which might also, when removed, beused to drink the lemonade from. Within the pail were three slices ofturkey, two slices of cold tongue, some lobster salad, four slices ofbread and butter, a small custard pie, an orange and nine largestrawberries, and some nuts and raisins. Singularly enough, the nutsin this dinner-pail grew already cracked, so that Dorothy had notrouble in picking out their meats to eat.

She spread the feast upon the rock beside her and began her dinner,first offering some of it to Tiktok, who declined because, as he said,he was merely a machine. Afterward she offered to share with Billina,but the hen murmured something about "dead things" and said shepreferred her bugs and ants.

"Do the lunch-box trees and the dinner-pail trees belong to theWheelers?" the child asked Tiktok, while engaged in eating her meal.

"Of course not," he answered. "They be-long to the roy-al fam-il-y ofEv, on-ly of course there is no roy-al fam-il-y just now be-cause KingEv-ol-do jumped in-to the sea and his wife and ten chil-dren have beentrans-formed by the Nome King. So there is no one to rule the Land ofEv, that I can think of. Per-haps it is for this rea-son that theWheel-ers claim the trees for their own, and pick the lunch-eons anddin-ners to eat them-selves. But they be-long to the King, and you willfind the roy-al "E" stamped up-on the bot-tom of ev-er-y din-ner pail."

Dorothy turned the pail over, and at once discovered the royal markupon it, as Tiktok had said.

"Are the Wheelers the only folks living in the Land of Ev?" enquiredthe girl.

"No; they on-ly in-hab-it a small por-tion of it just back of thewoods," replied the machine. "But they have al-ways beenmis-chiev-ous and im-per-ti-nent, and my old mas-ter, King Ev-ol-do,used to car-ry a whip with him, when he walked out, to keep thecrea-tures in or-der. When I was first made the Wheel-ers tried torun o-ver me, and butt me with their heads; but they soon found I wasbuilt of too sol-id a ma-ter-i-al for them to in-jure."

"You seem very durable," said Dorothy. "Who made you?"

"The firm of Smith & Tin-ker, in the town of Evna, where the roy-alpal-ace stands," answered Tiktok.

"Did they make many of you?" asked the child.

"No; I am the on-ly au-to-mat-ic me-chan-i-cal man they ev-ercom-plet-ed," he replied. "They were ver-y won-der-ful in-ven-tors,were my mak-ers, and quite ar-tis-tic in all they did."

"I am sure of that," said Dorothy. "Do they live in the town ofEvna now?"

"They are both gone," replied the machine. "Mr. Smith was an art-ist,as well as an in-vent-or, and he paint-ed a pic-ture of a riv-erwhich was so nat-ur-al that, as he was reach-ing a-cross it to paintsome flow-ers on the op-po-site bank, he fell in-to the wa-terand was drowned."

"Oh, I'm sorry for that!" exclaimed the little girl.

"Mis-ter Tin-ker," continued Tiktok, "made a lad-der so tall that hecould rest the end of it a-gainst the moon, while he stood on thehigh-est rung and picked the lit-tle stars to set in the points of theking's crown. But when he got to the moon Mis-ter Tin-ker found itsuch a love-ly place that he de-cid-ed to live there, so he pulled upthe lad-der af-ter him and we have nev-er seen him since."

"He must have been a great loss to this country," said Dorothy, whowas by this time eating her custard pie.

"He was," acknowledged Tiktok. "Also he is a great loss to me. Forif I should get out of or-der I do not know of an-y one a-ble tore-pair me, be-cause I am so com-pli-cat-ed. You have no i-de-a howfull of ma-chin-er-y I am."

"I can imagine it," said Dorothy, readily.

"And now," continued the machine, "I must stop talk-ing and be-ginthink-ing a-gain of a way to es-cape from this rock." So he turnedhalf way around, in order to think without being disturbed.

"The best thinker I ever knew," said Dorothy to the yellow hen,"was a scarecrow."

"Nonsense!" snapped Billina.

"It is true," declared Dorothy. "I met him in the Land of Oz,and he traveled with me to the city of the great Wizard of Oz,so as to get some brains, for his head was only stuffed with straw.But it seemed to me that he thought just as well before he got hisbrains as he did afterward."

"Do you expect me to believe all that rubbish about the Land of Oz?"enquired Billina, who seemed a little cross--perhaps because bugswere scarce.

"What rubbish?" asked the child, who was now finishing hernuts and raisins.

"Why, your impossible stories about animals that can talk, and a tinwoodman who is alive, and a scarecrow who can think."

"They are all there," said Dorothy, "for I have seen them."

"I don't believe it!" cried the hen, with a toss of her head.

"That's 'cause you're so ign'rant," replied the girl, who was a littleoffended at her friend Billina's speech.

"In the Land of Oz," remarked Tiktok, turning toward them, "an-y-thingis pos-si-ble. For it is a won-der-ful fair-y coun-try."

"There, Billina! what did I say?" cried Dorothy. And then she turnedto the machine and asked in an eager tone: "Do you know the Land ofOz, Tiktok?"

"No; but I have heard a-bout it," said the cop-per man. "For it ison-ly sep-a-ra-ted from this Land of Ev by a broad des-ert."

Dorothy clapped her hands together delightedly.

"I'm glad of that!" she exclaimed. "It makes me quite happy to be sonear my old friends. The scarecrow I told you of, Billina, is theKing of the Land of Oz."

"Par-don me. He is not the king now," said Tiktok.

"He was when I left there," declared Dorothy.

"I know," said Tiktok, "but there was a rev-o-lu-tion in the Land ofOz, and the Scare-crow was de-posed by a sol-dier wo-man namedGen-er-al Jin-jur. And then Jin-jur was de-posed by a lit-tle girlnamed Oz-ma, who was the right-ful heir to the throne and now rulesthe land un-der the ti-tle of Oz-ma of Oz."

"That is news to me," said Dorothy, thoughtfully. "But I s'poselots of things have happened since I left the Land of Oz. I wonderwhat has become of the Scarecrow, and of the Tin Woodman, and theCowardly Lion. And I wonder who this girl Ozma is, for I never heardof her before."

But Tiktok did not reply to this. He had turned around again toresume his thinking.

Dorothy packed the rest of the food back into the pail, so as not tobe wasteful of good things, and the yellow hen forgot her dignity farenough to pick up all of the scattered crumbs, which she ate rathergreedily, although she had so lately pretended to despise the thingsthat Dorothy preferred as food.

By this time Tiktok approached them with his stiff bow.

"Be kind e-nough to fol-low me," he said, "and I will lead you a-wayfrom here to the town of Ev-na, where you will be more com-for-ta-ble,and al-so I will pro-tect you from the Wheel-ers."

"All right," answered Dorothy, promptly. "I'm ready!"