Part 4 (1/2)

”I'm ready for the talk, your Majesty,” he said.

The King coughed and looked at his new General fiercely.

”Do you not tremble to take such liberties with your monarch?” he asked.

”Oh no,” replied Guph, calmly, and he blew a wreath of smoke that curled around the King's nose and made him sneeze. ”You want to conquer the Emerald City, and I'm the only Nome in all your dominions who can conquer it. So you will be very careful not to hurt me until I have carried out your wishes. After that--”

”Well, what then?” inquired the King.

”Then you will be so grateful to me that you won't care to hurt me,”

replied the General.

”That is a very good argument,” said Roquat. ”But suppose you fail?”

”Then it's the slicing machine. I agree to that,” announced Guph.

”But if you do as I tell you there will be no failure. The trouble with you, Roquat, is that you don't think carefully enough. I do. You would go ahead and march through your tunnel into Oz, and get defeated and driven back. I won't. And the reason I won't is because when I march I'll have all my plans made, and a host of allies to a.s.sist my Nomes.”

”What do you mean by that?” asked the King.

”I'll explain, King Roquat. You're going to attack a fairy country, and a mighty fairy country, too. They haven't much of an army in Oz, but the Princess who ruled them has a fairy wand; and the little girl Dorothy has your Magic Belt; and at the North of the Emerald City lives a clever sorceress called Glinda the Good, who commands the spirits of the air. Also I have heard that there is a wonderful Wizard in Ozma's palace, who is so skillful that people used to pay him money in America to see him perform. So you see it will be no easy thing to overcome all this magic.”

”We have fifty thousand soldiers!” cried the King proudly.

”Yes; but they are Nomes,” remarked Guph, taking a silk handkerchief from the King's pocket and wiping his own pointed shoes with it.

”Nomes are immortals, but they are not strong on magic. When you lost your famous Belt the greater part of your own power was gone from you.

Against Ozma you and your Nomes would have no show at all.”

Roquat's eyes flashed angrily.

”Then away you go to the slicing machine!” he cried.

”Not yet,” said the General, filling his pipe from the King's private tobacco pouch.

”What do you propose to do?” asked the monarch.

”I propose to obtain the power we need,” answered Guph. ”There are a good many evil creatures who have magic powers sufficient to destroy and conquer the Land of Oz. We will get them on our side, band them all together, and then take Ozma and her people by surprise. It's all very simple and easy when you know how. Alone, we should be helpless to injure the Ruler of Oz, but with the aid of the evil powers we can summon we shall easily succeed.”

King Roquat was delighted with this idea, for he realized how clever it was.

”Surely, Guph, you are the greatest General I have ever had!” he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with joy. ”You must go at once and make arrangements with the evil powers to a.s.sist us, and meantime I'll begin to dig the tunnel.”

”I thought you'd agree with me, Roquat,” replied the new General.

”I'll start this very afternoon to visit the Chief of the Whimsies.”

5. How Dorothy Became a Princess

When the people of the Emerald City heard that Dorothy had returned to them every one was eager to see her, for the little girl was a general favorite in the Land of Oz. From time to time some of the folk from the great outside world had found their way into this fairyland, but all except one had been companions of Dorothy and had turned out to be very agreeable people. The exception I speak of was the wonderful Wizard of Oz, a sleight-of-hand performer from Omaha who went up in a balloon and was carried by a current of air to the Emerald City. His queer and puzzling tricks made the people of Oz believe him a great wizard for a time, and he ruled over them until Dorothy arrived on her first visit and showed the Wizard to be a mere humbug. He was a gentle, kind-hearted little man, and Dorothy grew to like him afterward. When, after an absence, the Wizard returned to the Land of Oz, Ozma received him graciously and gave him a home in a part of the palace.