"Where did you get so many jewels?"

"Well, I'll tell you," answered the Nome. "When those Oz people took
my kingdom away from me--just because it was my kingdom and I wanted
to run it to suit myself-- they said I could take as many precious
stones as I could carry. So I had a lot of pockets made in my clothes
and loaded them all up. Jewels are fine things to have with you when
you travel; you can trade them for anything."

"Are they better than gold pieces?" asked Kiki.

"The smallest of these jewels is worth a hundred gold pieces such as
you stole from the old man."

"Don't talk so loud," begged Kiki, uneasily. "Some one else might
hear what you are saying."

After supper they took a walk together, and the former Nome King said:

"Do you know the Shaggy Man, and the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman,
and Dorothy, and Ozma and all the other Oz people?"

"No," replied the boy, "I have never been away from Mount Munch until
I flew over the Deadly Desert the other day in the shape of a hawk."

"Then you've never seen the Emerald City of Oz?"

"Never."

"Well," said the Nome, "I knew all the Oz people, and you can guess