"The Prince of the Ozure Isles, Your Maj'sty!" puffed Trot, as Ozma gave High Boy a bewildered smile. "The Medicine Man of Oz and my friend Benny, from Boston."
"Is he alive?" whispered Betsy, putting out her hand to touch the stone man, who was bending stiffly before the throne.
"Alive, but not a real person," sighed Benny, fixing his stone eyes mournfully on Betsy Bobbin.
"He's much better than a real person," declared the Scarecrow, rushing impetuously forward. "Just wait till you hear how he jumped into the mouth of a monster."
"Tell us! Tell us!" begged Betsy, clasping her hands.
"Hast had an adventure, maiden?" Pushing his way to the throne, Sir Hokus, the Good Knight of Oz, took Trot eagerly by the arm.
"Dozens and dozens!" panted Trot, sinking down on the carpeted steps leading to the throne. "So many I hardly know where to begin."
"Why not begin with me?" suggested Herby, throwing out his chest importantly. High Boy groaned with impatience as the contents of Herby's chest flew about the room, and the Wizard of Oz, who stood just behind Ozma, clapped on an extra pair of spectacles and hurried forward to get a better view of the medicine man.
While Trot and the Scarecrow helped Herby pick up his pill boxes, Ozma, noticing the worried expression of Prince Philador, bade him come nearer and tell what was troubling him. Philador, dropping on one knee before the throne, thought he had never seen a gentler little fairy than the Queen of all Oz. Feeling a bit shy in the presence of so great and grand a company he arose and told the whole story of Mombi's enchantments and Quiberon's cruelty and of his flight on the blue gull to the hut of Tattypoo.
Ozma and her advisers were not only astonished at the little Prince's troubles, but alarmed and distressed by the unexplainable disappearance of the good witch.