When General Guph returned to the cavern of the Nome King hisMajesty asked:

"Well, what luck? Will the Whimsies join us?"

"They will," answered the General. "They will fight for us with alltheir 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 itmakes 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," repliedGuph. He did not think it necessary to tell Roquat that theGrowleywogs demanded twenty thousand slaves. It would be time enoughfor that when Oz was conquered.

"A very reasonable request, I'm sure," remarked the King. "I mustcongratulate 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 ofPhantastico, 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 andForemost may prove as dangerous to us as to the Oz people. If he andhis terrible band come down from the mountain they may take thenotion to conquer the Nomes!"

"Pah! That is a foolish idea," retorted Guph, irritably, but he knewin his heart that the King was right. "The First and Foremost is aparticular friend of mine, and will do us no harm. Why, when I wasthere, he even invited me into his house."

The General neglected to tell the King how he had been jerked into thehut of the First and Foremost by means of the brass hoop. So Roquatthe Red looked at his General admiringly and said:

"You are a wonderful Nome, Guph. I'm sorry I did not make you myGeneral before. But what reward did the First and Foremost demand?"

"Nothing at all," answered Guph. "Even the Magic Belt itself couldnot add to his powers of sorcery. All the Phanfasms wish is todestroy the Oz people, who are good and happy. This pleasure willamply 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; "andthat is fast work, because the tunnel has to be drilled through solidrock. But after we have passed the desert it will not take us longto extend the tunnel to the walls of the Emerald City."

"Well, whenever you are ready, we shall be joined by the Whimsies, theGrowleywogs and the Phanfasms," said Guph; "so the conquest of Oz isassured 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 morethan you have promised them. It might have been better to haveconquered 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 ashudder. "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 thembefore they had a chance to get any eggs. Our former defeat was dueto the fact that the girl Dorothy had a Yellow Hen with her. I do notknow what ever became of that hen, but I believe there are no hens atall in the Land of Oz, and so there could be no eggs there."

"On the contrary," said Guph, "there are now hundreds of chickens inOz, and they lay heaps of those dangerous eggs. I met a goshawk on myway home, and the bird informed me that he had lately been to Oz tocapture and devour some of the young chickens. But they are protectedby 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 facehen's eggs--and I don't blame them."

"They won't need to face them," replied Guph. "I'm afraid of eggsmyself, and don't propose to take any chances of being poisoned bythem. My plan is to send the Whimsies through the tunnel first, andthen the Growleywogs and the Phanfasms. By the time we Nomes getthere the eggs will all be used up, and we may then pursue andcapture the inhabitants at our leisure."

"Perhaps you are right," returned the King, with a dismal sigh. "But Iwant it distinctly understood that I claim Ozma and Dorothy as my ownprisoners. They are rather nice girls, and I do not intend to let anyof those dreadful creatures hurt them, or make them their slaves. WhenI have captured them I will bring them here and transform them intochina ornaments to stand on my mantle. They will look very pretty--Dorothyon one end of the mantle and Ozma on the other--and I shall take greatcare to see they are not broken when the maids dust them."

"Very well, your Majesty. Do what you will with the girls for all Icare. Now that our plans are arranged, and we have the three mostpowerful bands of evil spirits in the world to assist us, let us makehaste to get the tunnel finished as soon as possible."

"It will be ready in three days," promised the King, and hurried awayto inspect the work and see that the Nomes kept busy.