"What do these people look like, Jellia?" she asked curiously. "Really I'd enjoy seeing a few."
"They look like nothing you ever have imagined!" Jellia told her with a slight shudder. "Goochers! Here come some now! And oh—it's those Blowmen—and all the others! Look, Wizard! Could we reach the Ozpril before they reach us?"
"Let's not try," decided the Wizard, as the Blowmen broke into a run. "Even if we made the plane, they might blow us to bits before I could get her started. Let's stay here and reason with them till I find something in this bag to help us."
"Oh, woe is we! Oh, woe is we!" gulped the Scarecrow, taking little runs and leaps into the air, hopeful that his balloons would lift him out of the danger zone as the threatening company drew closer. The Queen was marching grimly ahead of her subjects. In some way, decided Jellia, she had discovered Strut had not been in the silver plane. As the Wizard opened his kit bag the little Oz Maid rushed over to the Cowardly Lion.
"Get up!" directed Jellia, giving him a desperate prod with her toe. "Get up! We need your growl—and LISTEN!" she begged, as the big beast rolled over and blinked sleepily at the approaching airlanders. "Do everything I tell you or we are lost, LOST!"
Dorothy concluded Jellia had been quite right about the inhabitants of Stratovania. They certainly were like no one she ever had seen, and she could not help admiring the bold way Jellia stepped out to meet her dangerous adversary.
"Just what are you doing here?" demanded Jellia, folding her arms and tilting up her chin. "Did I not order you to leave us strictly alone? Blowmen, take this Kabebe woman away!"
"Kabebe's our Queen," muttered one of the Blowmen, scowling at Jellia. "At least," he corrected, glancing at his comrades, "she is our Queen until Strut returns."
"What makes you think Strut has NOT returned!" questioned Jellia, grandly. "Do you not recognize your Master!" With a regal wave, Jellia pointed to the Cowardly Lion. "Do you not believe that this is Strut—changed to this great beast by Ozma of Oz? But he is as powerful and able as ever, to rule this Kingdom! Strut!" Imperiously Jellia appealed to the Cowardly Lion. "Am I the Starina of Stratovania?"