"But I thought magic was against the law!" cried Nox with an outraged snort. "I understood no one was allowed to practice magic but Ozma, Glinda and the Wizard of Oz!" "Then why are you here?" demanded Wutz sternly. "YOU have been practicing magic or you could not have entered this mountain. Come, now, let us stop all this nonsense and get down to silver tacks and business. What have you to offer? Who sent you--Three, Six, Nine, Five or Eleven?" As you can imagine, this was perfect jargon to Nox and the Goat Girl, but Handy Mandy, convinced by this time that the Silver King was both sly and dangerous, resolved to fall in with his little supposition and see what would come of it. "Nine sent us," she answered boldly, while Nox looked across at her in perfect stupefaction. "You don't say! I rather thought you came from the Munchkin Country," mused the Wizard. "Something in the way the Ox talked, though you, yourself, are not a native Ozian?" "No!" Handy said noncommittally, and rather pleased she had chosen Nine, since this number had something to do with the Munchkins. "Did Nine say anything about the silver hammer?" asked the King, twinkling his eyes at the Goat Girl. "He told us nothing," stated Handy quite truthfully, this time. "That's Nine for you," fumed the King discontentedly. "He's the slowest and most unsatisfactory agent I have. Two years searching for that hammer and no report yet. I've a good notion to kick him out and put little King Kerry back on the throne. A bargain's a bargain and I've kept my part. Besides, I've got to have that hammer before I can make myself supreme ruler in Oz. Why, it's the second most important magic in the four Kingdoms!" At this surprising statement Handy pricked up her ears. "What did you say about Kerry?" panted Nox, almost stepping into the quicksilver lake at mention of the little King. "Nothing. I was talking about Nine," scowled the Wizard. "If that fellow does not show some action soon, I'll--I'll--" The King clenched his fists and looked so terribly angry that Handy was afraid he was going to blow bubbles again. But instead he glared across the lake and demanded impatiently, "Well, if you didn't bring the silver hammer, what did you bring?" "A magic flower," explained the Goat Girl hurriedly, and before Nox could give away the fact that they did have the silver hammer. She could guess from the expression in his eye that he was about to offer the hammer in exchange for Kerry. "A flower!" bawled Wutz, his face turning from red to purple. "My caves are full of flowers, frosted silver lilies, long-stemmed sterling roses, daisies and violets with jeweled centers. I can grow any kind of flower I wish. How dare you take up my time with a flower! PAH! Go back and tell Nine he had better look out--he's flirting with dismissal and destruction." "But this flower saves you from injury when you fall," stammered Handy, heartily wishing she had never got herself into such a controversy.