"And I've seen him before too," murmured the old tailor, half closing his eyes. "Let me think! Let me think!"
"Did you ever see the King yourself?" asked Snip, turning excitedly to Dorothy. The little girl had to acknowledge that she had not, for Mombi had hidden the old monarch away before Dorothy had come to Oz.
"You don't mind my being King, do you Dorothy?" The dummy turned to her coaxingly. "I'd love to be the star in just one picture. Let me be King and you shall be Queen."
"Star! Picture! Queen!" choked Pajuka, gazing from one to the other in bewilderment. "What does this mean? Woman, woman what have you done to the King?"
He turned accusingly to Mombi, but Mombi, brushing him roughly aside, had run up to Humpy and was examining him carefully from all sides. Catching sight of a white tape protruding from the collar of his robe, the old witch jerked him sideways and after one triumphant look at the number on the tape, began to jump up and down like a child on a pogo stick.
"The King!" shrilled Mombi, throwing up her stick. "It is the King of Oz himself! And I am the only one who can restore him to himself and to the throne." She looked sharply at Dorothy, whom she had already recognized, as if daring her to contradict this statement.
"But I don't see how a dummy could be a king," objected Dorothy, still trying to puzzle out the mystery.