"KABEBE?" said Jellia, with an uncomfortable start. "Why, where is Kabebe?"
"In Star Park," whispered the Messenger, hoarsely. "She's got all the people worked up and excited! They're coming here presently to blow you away!"
"What?" gasped Jellia in an exasperated voice, "Again? Why she knows Strut will never allow that."
"But Kabebe says HE isn't Strut!" said the messenger with an apologetic bow toward the Cowardly Lion, who, paying no attention to the conversation, was floating in distracted circles above the throne. "Now Junnenrump and I believe your Majesty, and consider you the best and prettiest Starina Stratovania ever had! But no one else does, so first they are going to blow away the Friend Ship and then they are coming here to blow you all away! So—while I do not presume to give orders—if I were in your Majesty's place, I'd fly, this very instant and while there still is time!"
"The boy is right," declared the Soldier, grabbing up his blunder-buss. "Company! Fall in! Forward march!"
"Wake up! Wake up!" cried the Scarecrow, pummeling the Wizard with both hands. "The Airlanders are destroying our Ozoplane!" While Jellia, really touched by the messenger's loyalty, gave him one of her emerald rings, Wantowin Battles lifted Dorothy off the sofa and set her hastily on her feet.
"Forward! Forward!" he urged, pushing her ahead of him. "Kabebe's coming to blow us away!" Dorothy—blinking her eyes after a look at the Cowardly Lion floating over the throne—concluded she still was dreaming. But the Soldier kept shaking her till she finally realized she was awake and in danger.
"This way!" cried Jellia, as the Wizard bounced off his cushions. "This way! The thing for us to do is to run to the other side of the airosphere. Then, while those villains are blowing the Ozpril away, we can be reaching the edge—and—"
"And WHAT?" queried Dorothy, looking at Jellia with round, scared eyes. Jellia, for reasons of her own, did not answer. The Scarecrow already had retrieved his balloons. Now he pressed the cord, still attached to the Cowardly Lion, into Wantowin's hand.