"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
assist 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