“I say, boys, they have us this time!” he cried in dismay. “We can’t stand this; we’ll have to jump down and fight in about half a minute.”
“Look here, Prince Harry,” said Smithkin, beckoning and pointing down; “here is a door in the wall close to my end of the wardrobe; perhaps we can slip through it and escape.”
“I don’t see any door,” said Harry, stooping down, and looking at the place indicated.
“You can’t see it,” replied the soldier, “but it’s there, and if you will quietly lift me down and give me your door-pin, I will open it.”
Just then a thick cloud of smoke enveloped them, and set them coughing and choking, so Harry hastily lowered himself to the floor and lifted his two companions down. The curtain of smoke completely screened them from the Gnomes on the other side of the fire.
Smithkin knew the exact spot in which to insert the door-pin,—for when he was commander of the King’s body-guard, it was often his duty to use the various secret doors and passages of which the common Pin Elves were ignorant,—and the three comrades quietly passed into an outer passage and closed the door behind them, without any one in the Hall knowing of their escape.
In perfect silence the soldier led them onward, until they found themselves in the chamber under the rock in Central Park.
“Now, Prince,” said Smithkin, “you know where we are. What are your orders?”
“You and Kitey wait here a moment,” replied Harry, “and I will go around through the Passage of the Toad and see what the Gnomes are doing.”
The boy hurried away and soon came to the spot in the main passage where the toad was tied up.