Before he could recover himself, the rope was wound several times about his ankles, and another piece was slipped over his head and hauled so tightly about his neck as nearly to strangle him. Both of his hands were still free, and he managed to turn partly over and grasp the rope around his neck and pull upon one side of it hard enough to loosen it somewhat.
But by this time nearly all of the Gnomes were about him, and presently they had ropes wound around both of his hands, and he was beyond the power of struggling.
Then a strange thing happened. Harry heard a shriek of terror from the throne, and looking up, he saw the King of the Gnomes, Cattisack, Grumpy, the Grand Prime Minister, and the Grand Recorder, all simultaneously fall forward from their seats and lie prone upon the steps of the dais. At the same time he felt the bonds about his neck and limbs loosen, and everything around him became as still as death.
CHAPTER XV.
ON TOP.
For awhile the boy was too astonished to move. At first he thought it was some trick they were trying to play upon him; but when he slipped the bonds from his neck and limbs without meeting with any opposition, he concluded that it could be no trick, and accordingly sprang to his feet.
All of the Gnomes at that end of the Hall were lying prostrate on the floor, rigid and motionless, as if paralyzed. Harry turned one of them over, and the little fellow lay staring vacantly upwards with open eyes, and seemed as lifeless as a china doll.
At the further end of the Hall a number were running back and forth, and crying and shrieking as though they were mad. Putting his hand to his ear, Harry could hear them calling out in terror, “The toad! the toad!”
At the sound of those words Harry hastily glanced about him, and soon discovered the little hop-toad sitting on the floor close by, blinking his eyes as if half-blinded by the light. It seems that Harry had left the trap-door open, and the little animal had hopped up the steps and out into the Hall just in the nick of time.
The boy danced about the creature, and roared with laughter. “Ha, ha, ha! what a lark!” he exclaimed. “The Gnomes are just as much afraid of a toad as the Pin Elves. Hurrah, little hoppy, you’ve saved the country! Let me show you, old fellow, what a wonderful power you possess.”
Picking up the animal, he ran to the other end of the Hall, and as soon as he approached the Gnomes there, they too fell down paralyzed with fear.