The nearest approach to a weapon that he could find, however, was simply a little pop-gun, or pop-pistol rather, belonging to his younger brother, and a steel paper-cutter shaped like a knife. These he slipped into his pockets, and then hurried back to the rock in the Park.
The chamber beneath the trap-door was vacant when he descended into it. Knowing that extreme wariness and caution were necessary, he examined every part of the chamber carefully before proceeding further, and was rewarded by the discovery of an elfin hat thrust into a crevice of the rock about the height of his head from the floor.
“It looks like Wamby’s,” he said, putting the hat on his head. “The little chap must have placed it here for me.”
He went forward cautiously, without seeing anything amiss until he drew near to the door where the two guards were stationed, when suddenly he stopped and uttered an exclamation of dismay; for there, guarding the door, stood two tall, hideous Gnomes. The reason they had not noticed him was because just at that moment they were occupied in opening the door.
Harry stood rooted to the spot in amazement for an instant. But when the door opened and showed him a large troop of armed Gnomes coming through it towards him, he regained control of himself quickly enough, and turned and ran back along the passageway at full speed.
The Gnomes at once caught sight of him and started in hot pursuit. Harry was fleet-footed, but he soon discovered that Gnomes are terrible fellows in a race, and that his pursuers were slowly gaining upon him.
At the foot of the hill of glass was the entrance to a side-passage. Into this the boy dashed, and a short distance further dodged into a cross-passage, along which he had run but a few paces when he stumbled and fell across an open trap-door in the floor. Luckily, the opening was small, or he would surely have plunged down head foremost to destruction.
His pursuers were out of sight, and scarcely knowing what he was doing, he sprang through the trap-door, and pushing the door up into place, crouched upon the steps beneath it. A moment later he could hear the troop of Gnomes rushing along the passage just above his head.
“Ha, ha!” he chuckled to himself. “Trot along, my boys,—but you’ll have a hard time finding me!”
When he had recovered his breath, he felt his way down to the bottom of the stone steps, and began slowly creeping forward.