"My eyes," remarked the Diamond Swan, "are wonderfully blue and bright and will charm all beholders." "Tell us how to make the boat go--how to get back into the island," begged Ervic and the others cried just as earnestly: "Tell us, Coo-ee-oh; tell us!" "I don't know," replied the Queen in a careless tone. "You are a magic-worker, a sorceress, a witch!" "I was, of course, when I was a girl," she said, bending her head over the clear water to catch her reflection in it; "but now I've forgotten all such foolish things as magic. Swans are lovelier than girls, especially when they're sprinkled with diamonds. Don't you think so?" And she gracefully swam away, without seeming to care whether they answered or not. Ervic and his companions were in despair. They saw plainly that Coo-ee-oh could not or would not help them. The former Queen had no further thought for her island, her people, or her wonderful magic; she was only intent on admiring her own beauty. "Truly," said Ervic, in a gloomy voice, "the Flatheads have conquered us!" * * * * * Some of these events had been witnessed by Ozma and Dorothy and Lady Aurex, who had left the house and gone close to the glass of the dome, in order to see what was going on. Many of the Skeezers had also crowded against the dome, wondering what would happen next. Although their vision was to an extent blurred by the water and the necessity of looking upward at an angle, they had observed the main points of the drama enacted above. They saw Queen Coo-ee-oh's submarine come to the surface and open; they saw the Queen standing erect to throw her magic rope; they saw her sudden transformation into a Diamond Swan, and a cry of amazement went up from the Skeezers inside the dome. "Good!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I hate that old Su-dic, but I'm glad Coo-ee-oh is punished." "This is a dreadful misfortune!" cried Lady Aurex, pressing her hands upon her heart. "Yes," agreed Ozma, nodding her head thoughtfully; "Coo-ee-oh's misfortune will prove a terrible blow to her people." "What do you mean by that?" asked Dorothy in surprise. "Seems to _me_ the Skeezers are in luck to lose their cruel Queen." "If that were all you would be right," responded Lady Aurex; "and if the island were above water it would not be so serious. But here we all are, at the bottom of the lake, and fast prisoners in this dome." "Can't you raise the island?" inquired Dorothy. "No. Only Coo-ee-oh knew how to do that," was the answer. "We can try," insisted Dorothy. "If it can be made to go down, it can be made to come up. The machinery is still here, I suppose. "Yes; but the machinery works by magic, and Coo-ee-oh would never share her secret power with any one of us." Dorothy's face grew grave; but she was thinking. "Ozma knows a lot of magic," she said. "But not that kind of magic," Ozma replied. "Can't you learn how, by looking at the machinery?"