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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."

The Emerald City of Oz