Therefore he had accepted this dangerous position
as General quite willingly, feeling sure in his evil mind that he would
be able to do a lot of mischief and finally conquer the Land of Oz.
Yet Guph determined to be careful, and to lay his plans well, so as
not to fail. He argued that only careless people fail in what they
attempt to do.
The mountains underneath which the Nome King's extensive caverns were
located lay grouped just north of the Land of Ev, which lay directly
across the deadly desert to the east of the Land of Oz. As the
mountains were also on the edge of the desert the Nome King found
that he had only to tunnel underneath the desert to reach Ozma's
dominions. He did not wish his armies to appear above ground in the
Country of the Winkies, which was the part of the Land of Oz nearest
to King Roquat's own country, as then the people would give the alarm
and enable Ozma to fortify the Emerald City and assemble an army. He
wanted to take all the Oz people by surprise; so he decided to run the
tunnel clear through to the Emerald City, where he and his hosts could
break through the ground without warning and conquer the people before
they had time to defend themselves.
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