remost 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