d the weapon to his shoulder and took a long
and steady aim. Just then the stranger put his fingers to his lips and
gave a low, shrill whistle. It was the last whistle that he was to give
upon this earth. There was a sharp, jarring twang of the bow-string, the
hiss of the flying bolt, and the dull thud as it struck its mark. The
man gave a shrill, quavering cry, and went staggering back, and then
fell all of a heap against the wall behind him. As though in answer to
the cry, half a dozen men rushed tumultuously out from the shadow of
the gateway whence the stranger had just come, and then stood in the
court-yard, looking uncertainly this way and that, not knowing from what
quarter the stroke had come that had laid their comrade low.

But Schwartz Carl did not give them time to discover that; there was no
chance to string his cumbersome weapon again; down he flung it upon the
ground. "To arms!" he roared in a voice of thunder, and then clapped to
the door of Melchior's tower and shot the great iron bolts with a clang
and rattle.

The next instant the Trutz-Drachen men were thundering at the door, but
Schwartz Carl was already far up the winding steps.

But now the others came pouring out from the gateway. "To the house,"
roared Baron Henry.

Then suddenly a clashing, clanging uproar crashed out upon the night.
Dong! Dong! It was the great alarm bell from Melchior's tower--Schwartz
Carl was at his post.

Little Baron Otto lay sleeping upon the great rough bed in his room,
dreaming of the White Cross on the hill and of brother John. By and by
he heard the convent bell ringing, and knew that there must be visitors
at the gate, for loud voices sounded through his dream. Presently he
knew that he was coming awake, but though the sunny monastery garden
grew dimmer and dimmer to his sleeping sight, the clanging of the bell
and the sound of shouts grew louder and louder. Then he opened his eyes.
Flaming red lights from torches, carried hither and thither by people
in the court-yard outside, flashed and ran along the wall of his
room. Hoarse shouts and cries filled the air, and suddenly the shrill,
piercing shriek of a woman rang from wall to wall; and through the
noises the great bell from far above upon Melchior's tower clashed and
clanged its harsh, resonant alarm.

Otto sprang from his bed and looked out of the window and down upon
the court-yard below. "Dear God! what dreadful thing hath happened?" he
cried and claspe