"It's the Love Magnet, your Highness," gulped the Soldier. "It's been broken!"
"Broken!" exclaimed Ozma, rising from her chair. "How could that ever have happened?"
"It was the nail," explained Omby Amby miserably. "If your highness will recall the Love Magnet has been hanging from a nail over the Gates of the Emerald City for many years—in fact, ever since the Shaggy Man came to live in the Land of Oz."
"Yes, I know," said Ozma.
"Well," went on the Soldier, "the nail must have rusted and this morning it snapped. The Love Magnet fell to the bricks of the Yellow Road and broke into two pieces."
Ozma's face was grave. "You brought the pieces with you?" she asked.
"Yes, your Highness, I did," replied Omby Amby. Delving into one of his pockets, he handed Ozma the two pieces of the Love Magnet, a small bit of metal, shaped like a horseshoe when it was whole.
Ozma held the broken Love Magnet in her hand, regarding it sadly. "It is too bad," she said, "that so wonderful a charm should be broken."
"Do you mean it can't be repaired, your Highness?" asked Omby Amby.
"Of that I am not sure," replied Ozma. "Perhaps the first thing we should do is ask the Shaggy Man to come here and explain to him how the Love Magnet came to be broken, since it does, after all, really belong to him."