"Now Tiktok," said Dorothy, "the first thing to be done is to find a way for us to escape from these rocks. The Wheelers are down below, you know, and threaten to kill us."

 

"There is no rea-son to be a-fraid of the Wheel-ers," said Tiktok, the words coming more slowly than before.

 

"Why not?" she asked.

 

"Be-cause they are ag-g-g--gr-gr-r-r-"

 

He gave a sort of gurgle and stopped short, waving his hands frantically¹ until suddenly he became motionless, with one arm in the air and the other held stiffly before him with all the copper² fingers of the hand spread out like a fan.

 

"Dear me!" said Dorothy, in a frightened tone. "What can the matter be?"

 

"He's run down, I suppose," said the hen, calmly. "You couldn't have wound him up very tight."

 

"I didn't know how much to wind him," replied the girl; "but I'll try to do better next time."

 

She ran around the copper man to take the key from the peg³ at the back of his neck, but it was not there.

 

"It's gone!" cried Dorothy, in dismay.

 

"What's gone?" asked Billina.

 

"The key."

 

"It probably fell off when he made that low bow to you," returned the hen. "Look around, and see if you cannot find it again."

 

Dorothy looked, and the hen helped her, and by and by the girl discovered the clock-key, which had fallen into a crack of the rock.

 

At once she wound up Tiktok's voice, taking care to give the key as many turns as it would go around. She found this quite a task, as you may imagine if you have ever tried to wind a clock, but the machine man's first words were to assure Dorothy that he would now run for at least twenty-four hours.

 

"You did not wind me much, at first," he calmly said, "and I told you that long sto-ry a-bout King Ev-ol-do; so it is no won-der that I ran down."

 

She next rewound the action clock-work, and then Billina advised her to carry the key to Tiktok in her pocket, so it would not get lost again.

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