our dear Ozma! Can't we do ANYthing to find her, Wizard?"

"I'll ask Glinda. I must go straight back to her and tell her that my
magic tools have also disappeared. The good Sorceress will be greatly
shocked, I know."

With this, he jumped upon the back of the Sawhorse again, and the
quaint steed, which never tired, dashed away at full speed. The three
girls were very much disturbed in mind. Even the Patchwork Girl
seemed to realize that a great calamity had overtaken them all. Ozma
was a fairy of considerable power, and all the creatures in Oz as well
as the three mortal girls from the outside world looked upon her as
their protector and friend. The idea of their beautiful girl Ruler's
being overpowered by an enemy and dragged from her splendid palace a
captive was too astonishing for them to comprehend at first. Yet what
other explanation of the mystery could there be?

"Ozma wouldn't go away willingly, without letting us know about it,"
asserted Dorothy, "and she wouldn't steal Glinda's Great Book of
Records or the Wizard's magic, 'cause she could get them any time just
by asking for 'em. I'm sure some wicked person has done all this."

"Someone in the Land of Oz?" asked Trot.

"Of course.

No one could get across the Deadly Desert, you know, and
no one but an Oz person could know about the Magic Picture and the
Book of Records and the Wizard's magic or where they were kept, and so
be able to steal the whole outfit before we could stop 'em. It MUST