Still holding me down with both hands, he suddenly straddled his powerful knees open, as if they had been a pair of nut-crackers, and the two legs of me—outside which his own legs now lay—the two halves of a walnut. Then he closed his knees, clipping mine together within them, as the pair of crackers might clip the shell; and though I struggled with all my strength, for I was furious at finding myself proved to be not only as a child in his hands, but as an infant upon his knees—or between them—I knew, when I heard him say 'Now,' that I was as neatly hobbled as any horse.
"It's a pity you put us and yourself to all this unnecessary trouble," he said philosophically. "Now, then, Wright, look in his pockets for a handkerchief, and lash his wrists while I hold them together."
As he spoke, the five fingers of his right hand closed on my left hand, as the talons of a pouncing hawk close upon a field-mouse.
Then, in spite of my futile efforts, he drew my left hand towards my right, and suddenly spanning the two with the fingers of his single hand, nonchalantly arranging the set of his collar with the other meanwhile, he said:
"Now, Wright, just tie his wrists together, will you?" and once again the mesmerised man did as he was bidden.
Rising, the Dumpling turned from me to Wright. Looking that worthy full in the eyes, he said, in a low voice:
"You are awake."
"I am awake," repeated Wright, automatically, as his eyes, still fixed in a stupid stare, turned sluggishly in their sockets, following his master's movements.
Lifting his dropped left arm slightly, the Dumpling touched, with a finger tip, the finger tips of the other's loosely open hand. Then he put his right hand on Wright's shoulder, and with a gentle shake, said:
"Wake!"