It was a huge web -- as if woven by gigantic
spiders -- and the delicate, lacy film was fastened
stoutly to the branches of the bushes and continued to
the right and left in the form of a half circle. The
threads of this web were of a brilliant purple color
and woven into numerous artistic patterns, but it
reached from the ground to branches above the heads of
the girls and formed a sort of fence that hedged them
in.
"It doesn't look very strong, though," said Dorothy.
"I wonder if we couldn't break through." She tried but
found the web stronger than it seemed. All her efforts
could not break a single thread.
"We must go back, I think, and try to get around this
peculiar web," Ozma decided.
So they turned to the right and, following the web
found that it seemed to spread in a regular circle. On
and on they went until finally Ozma said they had
returned to the exact spot from which they had started.
"Here is a handkerchief you dropped when we were here
before," she said to Dorothy.
"In that case, they must have built the web behind
us, after we walked into the trap," exclaimed the
little girl.
"True," agreed Ozma, "an enemy has tried to imprison
us.
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