There were only about a hundred spears in the wardrobe, and Kitey distributed them among a hundred picked elves. These Harry placed in a line at the foot of the steps leading up to the dais. Then he seated Wamby on the throne, and directed the great body of unarmed elves to stand upon the raised dais on each side of and behind the throne.
Having thus disposed his forces, Harry said: “You hundred men are King Wamby’s body-guard. Under no consideration are you to leave him. You must protect his person, and also do what you can to protect your unarmed comrades on the dais. Now, Kitey, you and I will go to help Smithkin.”
Brave little Kitey had selected a terrible-looking spear about twice as long as himself, and with this resting upon his shoulder he trotted gleefully beside Harry down the long Hall.
The boy took his stand by the side of the door where the hinges were, so that he would be behind the door when it opened, and having placed Smithkin upon the other side, and directed the elves to keep close to the wall and to do nothing till he gave the word, he awaited the coming of the Gnomes.
Thus there were ranged close to the wall on one side of the doorway, Smithkin and five hundred elves; and on the other side, Harry and Kitey with five hundred elves.
Presently the door swung open, and the advance body-guard of the King of the Gnomes marched into the Hall without looking to the right or left. The elfin soldiers remained like statues; no one moved a muscle. Harry waited, every nerve in his body quivering with suppressed excitement, until the advance-guard had passed and the King of the Gnomes himself stepped into the Hall. Then he slammed to the door, slipped the bolts into place, and shouted to the elves, “Now, capture them!”
Harry’s plan had been to admit the King of the Gnomes and take him prisoner, and shut out the main body of the Gnomes themselves. Then, with the King in his power, he could bring them speedily to terms. But his plan only partly succeeded.
The Gnoman soldiers marched as soldiers should, with “eyes front,” and failed to see the ambuscade laid for them. But the two little attendants, who were bearing the King of the Gnomes’ beard, were darting their sharp, black eyes in all directions, and the moment they stepped into the Hall they espied Smithkin and his men. Instantly they dropped the King’s beard and rushed back into the passageway. That warned the King that something was wrong, and he hastily stepped back into the passage, just as Harry slammed the door shut. But, though the King had escaped being taken prisoner in the Hall, he was captured in another way; for the door shut upon his long, gray beard, and thus he was securely held fast.
Harry, however, did not know about that, but supposed the King had escaped entirely. The boy, therefore, turned his attention to the Gnoman soldiers in the Hall.
There were some two hundred of them, the flower of the Gnoman army, but of course they stood no chance against a thousand spry Pin Elves. Before they had time to recover from their surprise at discovering the trap they had walked into, they were surrounded by the elves, who, disdaining to use their spear-points, laid about them with the shafts of their weapons, and knocked them right and left without mercy, and in short order had them overcome and disarmed.