shoulder, she said:
    "Bravely done, my copper friend! and wisely thought of, too.Now we are free from 
those ugly creatures."
    But just then a large band of Wheelers rolled from the forest, and relying upon their 
numbers to conquer, they advanced fiercely upon Tiktok.Dorothy grabbed Billina in her 
arms and held her tight, and the machine embraced the form of the little girl with his 
left arm, the better to protect her.Then the Wheelers were upon them.
    Rattlety, bang! bang! went the dinner-pail in every direction, and it made so much 
clatter bumping against the heads of the Wheelers that they were much more frightened 
than hurt and fled in a great panic. All, that is, except their leader.This Wheeler had 
stumbled against another and fallen flat upon his back, and before he could get his 
wheels under him to rise again, Tiktok had fastened his copper fingers into the neck of 
the gorgeous jacket of his foe and held him fast.
    "Tell your peo-ple to go a-way," commanded the machine.
    The leader of the Wheelers hesitated to give this order, so Tiktok shook him as a 
terrier dog does a rat, until the Wheeler's teeth rattled together with a noise like 
hailstones on a window pane.Then, as soon as the creature could get its breath, it 
shouted to the others to roll away, which they immediately did.
    "Now," said Tiktok, "you shall come with us and tell me what I want to know."
    "You'll be sorry for treating me in this way," whined the Wheeler. "I'm a terribly 
fierce person."
    "As for that," answered Tiktok, "I am only a ma-chine, and can-not feel sor-row or 
joy, no mat-ter what hap-pens.But you are wrong to think your-self ter-ri-ble or fierce."
    "Why so?" asked the Wheeler.
    "Be-cause no one else thinks as you do.Your wheels make you help-less to in-jure an-y 
one.For you have no fists and can not scratch or e-ven pull hair.Nor have you an-y feet 
to kick with. All you can do is to yell and shout, and that does not hurt an-y one at 
all."
    The Wheeler burst into a flood of tears, to Dorothy's great surprise.
    "Now I and my people are ruined forever!" he sobbed; "for you have discovered our 
secret.Being so helpless, our only hope is to make people afraid of us, by pretending we 
are very fierce and terrible, and writing in the sand warnings to Beware the 
Wheelers.Until now we have frightened everyone, but since you have discovered our 
weakness our enemies will fall upon us and make us very miserable and unhappy."
    "Oh, no," exclaimed Dorothy, who was sorry to see this beautifully dressed Wheeler so 
miserable; "Tiktok will keep your secret, and so will Billina and I.Only, you must 
promise not to try to frighten children any more, if they come near to you."
    "I won't-indeed I won't!" promised the Wheeler, ceasing to cry and becoming more 
cheerful."I'm not really bad, you know; but we have to pretend to be terrible in order to 
prevent others from attacking us."
    "That is not ex-act-ly true," said Tiktok, starting to walk toward the path through 
the forest, and still holding fast to his prisoner, who rolled slowly along beside 
him."You and your peo-ple are full of mis-chief, and like to both-er those who fear 
you.And you are of-ten im-pu-dent and dis-a-gree-a-ble, too.But if you will try to cure 
those faults I will not tell any-one how help-less you are."
    "I'll try, of course," replied the Wheeler, eagerly."And thank you, Mr. Tiktok, for 
your kindness."
    "I am on-ly a ma-chine," said Tiktok."I can not be kind an-y more than I can be 
sor-ry or glad.I can on-ly do what I am wound up to do."
    "Are you wound up to keep my secret?" asked the Wheeler, anxiously.
    "Yes; if you be-have your-self.But tell me: who rules the Land of Ev now?" asked the 
machine.
    "There is no ruler," was the answer, "because every member of the royal family is 
imprisoned by the Nome King.But the Princess Langwidere, who is a niece of our late King 
Evoldo, lives in a part of the royal palace and takes as much money out of the royal 
treasury as she can spend.The Princess Langwidere is not exactly a ruler, you see, 
because she doesn't rule; but she is the nearest approach to a ruler we have at present."
    "I do not re-mem-ber her," said Tiktok."What does she look like?"
    "That I cannot say," replied the Wheeler, "although I have seen her twenty times.For 
the Princess Langwidere is a different person every time I see her, and the only way her 
subjects can recognize her at all is by means of a beautiful ruby key which she always 
wears on a chain attached to her left wrist.When we see the key we know we are beholding 
the Princess."
    "That is strange," said Dorothy, in astonishment."Do you mean to say that so many 
different princesses are one and the same person?"
    "Not exactly," answered the Wheeler."There is, of course, but one princess; but she 
appears to us in many forms, which are all more or less beautiful."
    "She must be a witch," exclaimed the girl.
    "I do not think so," declared the Wheeler."But there is some mystery connected with 
her, nevertheless.She is a very vain creature, and lives mostly in a room surrounded by 
mirrors, so that she can admire herself whichever way she looks."
    No one answered this speech, because they had just passed out of the forest and their 
attention was fixed upon the scene before them-a beautiful vale in which were many fruit 
trees and green fields, with pretty farm-houses scattered here and there and broad, 
smooth roads that led in every direction.
    In the center of this lovely vale, about a mile from where our friends were standing, 
rose the tall spires of the royal palace, which glittered brightly against their 
background of blue sky.The palace was surrounded by charming grounds, full of flowers and 
shrubbery. Several tinkling fountains could be seen, and there were pleasant walks 
bordered by rows of white marble statuary.
    All these details Dorothy was, of course, unable to notice or admire until they had 
advanced along the road to a position quite near to the palace, and she was still looking 
at the pretty sights when her little party entered the grounds and approached the big 
front door of the king's own apartments.To their disappointment they found the door 
tightly closed.A sign was tacked to the panel which read as follows:
    
    OWNER ABSENT.
    Please Knock at the Third
    Door in the Left Wing.
    
    "Now," said Tiktok to the captive Wheeler, "you must show us the way to the Left 
Wing."
    "Very well," agreed the prisoner, "it is around here at the right."
    "How can the left wing be at the right?" demanded Dorothy, who feared the Wheeler was 
fooling them.
    "Because there used to be three wings, and two were torn down, so the one on the 
right is the only one left.It is a trick of the Princess Langwidere to prevent visitors 
from annoying her."
    Then the captive led them around to the wing, after which the machine man, having no 
further use for the Wheeler, permitted him to depart and rejoin his fellows.He