When General Guph returned to
the cavern of the Nome King his
Majesty asked:
"Well, what
luck? Will the Whimsies join
us?"
"They will," answered the General. "They
will fight for us with all their
strength and cunning."
"Good!" exclaimed the King. "What
reward did you promise them?"
"Your Majesty
is to use the Magic Belt to
give each Whimsie
a large, fine head, in place
of the small one he is now obliged
to wear."
"I agree to that," said the
King. "This is good news, Guph,
and it makes me feel more certain
of the conquest of Oz."
"But I have other news for
you," announced the General.
"Good or bad?"
"Good, your
Majesty."
"Then I will hear it," said
the King, with interest.
"The Growleywogs
will join us."
"No!" cried
the astonished King.
"Yes, indeed," said the General. "I
have their promise."
"But what reward do they demand?" inquired
the King, suspiciously, for he
knew how greedy the Growleywogs
were.
"They are to take a few of
the Oz people for their slaves," replied
Guph. He did not think it necessary
to tell Roquat that the Growleywogs
demanded twenty thousand slaves.
It would be time enough for that
when Oz was conquered.
"A very reasonable request,
I'm sure," remarked the King. "I
must congratulate you, Guph,
upon the wonderful success of
your journey."
"But that is not all," said
the General, proudly.
The King seemed
astonished. "Speak
out, sir!" he commanded.
"I have seen
the First and Foremost Phanfasm
of the Mountain
of Phantastico, and he will bring
his people to assist us."
"What!" cried the King. "The
Phanfasms! You don't mean it,
Guph!"
"It is true," declared
the General, proudly.
The King became thoughtful,
and his brows wrinkled.
"I'm afraid, Guph," he said
rather anxiously, "that the First
and Foremost may prove as dangerous
to us as to the Oz people. If
he and his terrible band come
down from the mountain they may
take the notion to conquer the
Nomes!"
"Pah! That is a foolish idea," retorted
Guph, irritably, but he knew
in his heart that the King was
right. "The First and Foremost
is a particular friend of mine,
and will do us no harm. Why,
when I was there, he even invited
me into his house."
The General neglected to tell
the King how he had been jerked
into the hut of the First and
Foremost by means of the brass
hoop. So Roquat the Red looked
at his General admiringly and
said:
"You are a
wonderful Nome, Guph. I'm sorry
I did not make
you my General before. But what
reward did the First and Foremost
demand?"
"Nothing at all," answered
Guph. "Even the Magic Belt itself
could not add to his powers of
sorcery. All the Phanfasms wish
is to destroy the Oz people,
who are good and happy. This
pleasure will amply repay them
for assisting us."
"When will they come?" asked
Roquat, half fearfully.
"When the tunnel is completed," said
the General.
"We are nearly halfway under
the desert now," announced the
King; "and that is fast work,
because the tunnel has to be
drilled through solid rock. But
after we have passed the desert
it will not take us long to extend
the tunnel to the walls of the
Emerald City."
"Well, whenever you are ready,
we shall be joined by the Whimsies,
the Growleywogs and the Phanfasms," said
Guph; "so the conquest of Oz
is assured without a doubt."
Again, the King seemed thoughtful.
"I'm almost sorry we did not
undertake the conquest alone," said
he. "All of these allies are
dangerous people, and they may
demand more than you have promised
them. It might have been better
to have conquered Oz without
any outside assistance."
"We could not do it," said
the General, positively.
"Why not, Guph?"
"You know very
well. You have had one experience
with the Oz
people, and they defeated you."
"That was because they rolled
eggs at us," replied the King,
with a shudder. "My Nomes cannot
stand eggs, any more than I can
myself. They are poison to all
who live underground."
"That is true enough," agreed
Guph.
"But we might
have taken the Oz people by
surprise, and conquered
them before they had a chance
to get any eggs. Our former defeat
was due to the fact that the
girl Dorothy had a Yellow Hen
with her. I do not know what
ever became of that hen, but
I believe there are no hens at
all in the Land of Oz, and so
there could be no eggs there."
"On the contrary," said Guph, "there
are now hundreds of chickens
in Oz, and they lay heaps of
those dangerous eggs. I met a
goshawk on my way home, and the
bird informed me that he had
lately been to Oz to capture
and devour some of the young
chickens. But they are protected
by magic, so the hawk did not
get a single one of them."
"That is a very bad report," said
the King, nervously. "Very bad,
indeed. My Nomes are willing
to fight, but they simply can't
face hen's eggs--and I don't
blame them."
"They won't need to face them," replied
Guph. "I'm afraid of eggs myself,
and don't propose to take any
chances of being poisoned by
them. My plan is to send the
Whimsies through the tunnel first,
and then the Growleywogs and
the Phanfasms. By the time we
Nomes get there the eggs will
all be used up, and we may then
pursue and capture the inhabitants
at our leisure."
"Perhaps you are right," returned
the King, with a dismal sigh. "But
I want it distinctly understood
that I claim Ozma and Dorothy
as my own prisoners. They are
rather nice girls, and I do not
intend to let any of those dreadful
creatures hurt them, or make
them their slaves. When I have
captured them I will bring them
here and transform them into
china ornaments to stand on my
mantle. They will look very pretty--Dorothy
on one end of the mantle and
Ozma on the other--and I shall
take great care to see they are
not broken when the maids dust
them."
"Very well,
your Majesty. Do what you will
with the girls
for all I care. Now that our
plans are arranged, and we have
the three most powerful bands
of evil spirits in the world
to assist us, let us make haste
to get the tunnel finished as
soon as possible."
"It will be ready in three
days," promised the King, and
hurried away to inspect the work
and see that the Nomes kept busy.
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