Kaliko had not yet tried this new contrivance, and still grumbling a little he set the exspectacles upon his nose and stared drearily at the rock wall in front of him. He really did not expect anything to happen. Therefore, when four figures appeared suddenly upon the wall, he gave a start of astonishment. Reflected upon the rock surface as clearly as if it were a moving picture, he could see four people making their way through the Lost Labyrinth at the Southern end of his dominions.
"Guph! Guph!" shrieked the Gnome King, pounding vigorously on the gong at his side. "Come back here at once." And when Guph, rather sulkily, appeared, he pointed excitedly at the wall.
"Look! Look!" commanded Kaliko. "It's Betsy Bobbin, the Hungry Tiger of Oz and two others. What in mud is that fellow made of anyway?"
Rubbing his eyes, Guph stared at the wall and then at his master. Then, taking a scrap of paper from a rock desk beside the throne, he scribbled two words on the paper and handed it to the King.
"You're crazy," stated the paper, quite saucily.
"How dare you write to me like that!" fumed Kaliko, tearing the paper in two. "Are you dumb, can't you speak? Are you blind, can't you see?" He waved again at the great rock. Then, suddenly realizing that Guph had not the exspectacles to help him, tore them off and clapped them upon the Chief Chamberlain's nose. Immediately Guph was as excited as Kaliko.
"Hurrah!" exulted the little gnome, forgetting his determination not to speak to the King again. "Hurrah! Now we can have a war. Shall I call out the Guard and have the red hot dungeons heated? Hah, Hah, Hah!"
"What are you laughing at?" exclaimed Kaliko, as Guph doubled up with mirth.
"That animated truck garden," panted Guph. "He's fallen on his corn ear and the Hungry Tiger just slipped into a mud hole!"