So saying, he and Kitey led the thousand armed elves to the place of rendezvous. When they had quietly entered the room, Harry tiptoed to the passage leading to the Reception Hall, and suddenly rushing in, grasped by the neck the two Gnomes guarding the door there, and carried them back to the room, where they were gagged and bound. Then, leaving orders for his men to follow at a given signal, he and Kitey entered the passage, with the intention of looking into the Reception Hall.
They had gotten within about eight feet of the door, when suddenly, without any warning, the door flew open and a large body of the Gnomes rushed upon them. Poor little Kitey was seized by a dozen at once, and hustled into the Reception Hall before he had a chance to strike a blow. At the same time, a hundred Gnomes tripped up Harry with strong ropes, and despite his kicks and struggles he, too, was dragged into the Reception Hall, and was in a trice securely bound hand and foot.
Then the door was shut and bolted, although the bolting was unnecessary, for the Pin Elves had been deprived of their door-pins when they had been banished. Harry still retained his pin concealed under the lapel of his coat, but Kitey had loaned his to Wamby.
The two prisoners were carried before the King and laid upon the floor.
“Ha, ha!” laughed the King, in a snarling tone. “We Gnomes are not quite so stupid as you imagined. My spies have been watching your movements ever since you landed. The thousand elves that came with you are safe where they are; they have no door-pin, and I shall just leave them alone there, and let them starve.
“As for Wamby and his crowd—ah, here is a messenger now that will tell us about them! Make your report,” he said to Smithkin, who had just entered the hall.
With an obsequious bow, Smithkin began: “If it please Your Royal Majesty, we were waiting outside the chamber with the great trap-door in the floor. Wamby and his followers presently appeared and entered the chamber without discovering our ambush. I cautiously crept forward and inserted my door-pin in the hole controlling the trap-door, and just as Wamby inserted his pin in the door leading out of the chamber, I pressed upon my pin and dumped them all into the dungeon below. As soon as the floor swung back into place, I ran forward and secured Wamby’s door-pin, which had remained sticking in the hole, and I now have the honor of presenting it to Your Majesty.”
“Good!” cried the King, with a malicious chuckle. “So they’re safe too. Ha, ha! I’ll just let them starve with the others. Eh, Prince?” he went on, with a taunting look at Harry; “a fine Prince you are, to get your followers into such a scrape! Oh, I’ve a notion to kill you both at once!” he growled savagely, and shook his pickax menacingly at them. “But we’ll wait till after dinner, and then my royal colleague, Cattisack, and my Lord of the Safety-Pin can have the pleasure of torturing you a little. Take the prisoners over yonder, and you, Smithkin, guard them while we eat!”
The King arose, and with two attendant Gnomes reverently bearing his great, gray beard, he walked to the table and seated himself. The whole company followed his example, and soon they were all busily eating and talking.
Meanwhile, the two prisoners had been dragged to one side of the Hall and left there, with no one but Smithkin near them.