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Great was his astonishment to find the King gone and the enchantments removed from the Princess and Shaggy. But the eggs were also gone and so Kaliko advanced to the dragon, whom he knew to be Tititi-Hoochoo's messenger, and bowed humbly before the beast. "What is your will?" he inquired. "Where is Betsy?" demanded the dragon. "Safe in my own private room," said Kaliko.
Kaliko, in the next cavern, was wondering what had happened to Ruggedo and if he had escaped the eggs and outwitted the dragon. But when he heard the sound of the gong, which had so often called him into the King's presence, he decided that Ruggedo had been victorious; so he took away the bar, threw open the door and entered the royal cavern.
"Our first task," said Shaggy, a little comforted by this remark, "is to find one of those secret passages to the Metal Forest." "True," agreed Kaliko. "So I think I will assemble the chief nomes of my kingdom in this throne room and tell them that I am their new King. Then I can ask them to assist us in searching for the secret passages.
The Nome King turned pale, for he loved to rule the Nomes and did not know of any other way to earn a living in case Ozma fought and conquered him. "Do do you think Ozma will be angry?" he asked anxiously. "I'm sure of it," said Kaliko. "And she has the right to be. You've made scrap-iron of her favorite." The King groaned.
"I haven't done anything to them," whined Kaliko, trembling as her eyes flashed upon him. "No; but you tried to, an' that's just as bad, if not worse," said Dorothy, who was very indignant. "And now I want you to send for the King and Queen of Pingaree and have them brought here immejitly!" "I won't," said Kaliko. "Yes, you will!" cried Dorothy, stamping her foot at him.
Opening this, he found a solid wall of rock confronting him, which effectually prevented his escape in that direction. The boy now realized that King Kaliko had tricked him, and while professing to receive him as a guest had plotted to separate him from his comrades. One way had been left, however, by which he might escape and he decided to see where it led to.
At once they followed her advice, avoiding the rubber stepping stones, and made the crossing with ease. This encouraged the entire party to wade through the dry water, and in a few minutes all had assembled on the bank and renewed their journey along the path that led to the Nome King's dominions. When Kaliko again looked through his magic spyglass he exclaimed: "Bad luck, Your Majesty!
"Fine," said the Clockwork Man. "You have done a ve-ry good job, Kal-i-ko, and saved me from de-struc-tion. Much o-bliged." "Don't mention it," replied the Chief Steward. "I quite enjoyed the work." Just then the Nome King's gong sounded, and Kaliko rushed away through the jewel-studded cavern and into the den where the King had hidden, leaving the doors ajar.
Kaliko went away shaking his head, for he thought Ruggedo was making a great mistake. He found the Magician and had the path twisted so that it led directly to the opening of the Hollow Tube, and this opening he made invisible.
All around this circular cave, which was brilliantly lighted from an unknown source, were arches connected with other caverns. Kaliko took a gold whistle from his pocket and blew a shrill note that echoed through every part of the cave. Instantly nomes began to pour in through the side arches in great numbers, until the immense space was packed with them as far as the eye could reach.
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