“Good enough!” Harry cried; “we can send them down below now! Let me call in Wamby and the rest.”
He was on the point of unbolting the secret door, when luckily he bethought himself.
“Hold on!” he cried; “that won’t do! We don’t want to paralyze the Pin Elves.”
He considered a moment, and then carried the toad back to the passage, and placing him on the top step, shut the trap-door. Then, standing close to the door, he waited until the Gnomes revived and tremblingly arose to their feet.
“Listen to me!” he called, in commanding tones. “Cattisack and Grumpy, stand over there by the wardrobe and don’t move. Some of you fellows gather all of your weapons together, and pile them in the corner yonder. And you,”—to the King of the Gnomes,—“take off your crown and royal mantle, and place them on the step beside your sceptre. Now, all of you go through the antechamber and down to the shore of the lake and wait there. If you dare disobey my orders, I shall come after you with the toad!”
When the last Gnome had gone, the boy bolted the door behind them, and ran across and opened the secret door. “Enter, King Wamby,” he said, “and take possession of your throne and kingdom.”
But the Pin Elves shrank back with fear and loathing, and some of the nearest ones fell to the ground, crying, “The toad! the toad!”
“What ails you?” exclaimed Harry. “There’s no toad here; I put him back in the passage and shut the door.”
“Then you must have touched him, Prince,” said Kitey, “and it is the odor left upon your hands that prostrates us.”
“What can I do?” Harry asked in perplexity.