“In spite of his protests, they bore him off.”
The little man gave an ugly leer and said—
“Add to that a bushel of sense,
Mixed with the best experience;
Else for ever in slavery groan,
For I’ll have ye, and work ye to skin and bone.
With a rum-tum-ti, and a rum-tum-toe,
A tee-to-tum, and a ho, ho, ho!”
And he burst into peals of laughter, dancing and snapping his long bony fingers. Then, calling some of his men about him, he pointed to the maker of ghosts, saying—
“A trespasser who cannot pay;
Seize him, and carry him away.”
And, in spite of his protests, they bore him off, raising as they did so a shout of “Nepo! Nepo! Nepo!” A door opened in the wall. The dwarf and their prisoner entered, and it closed again with a bang, the echoes of which reverberated along the narrow galleries like distant thunder. The maker of shadows and the ground-gnome hurried up, but just too late to enter. They stared at each other. Here was a pretty kettle of fish!
