the night, by turns, and get your
sleep in the daytime. I hope we shall get them away without waiting for
a force to come. The hold is a very strong one, and a strict watch is
kept at night; and, before we could carry it, we should have all the
Bairds on the countryside down upon us.

"Can you get me a rope? I want a long and a strong one."

"There are some ropes in the stable, master, but they are in use, and
would be missed."

"Then run, at the top of your speed, down to the town; and buy a rope
strong enough to hold the weight of half a dozen men. I shall want a
hundred feet of it. Here is money."

The man shot away into the darkness and, in a little over a quarter of
an hour, was back again with the rope. Oswald took off his doublet.

"Wind it round and round me," he said. "Begin under the arms. Wind it
neatly, and closely, so that it will make no more show than necessary."

This was soon done, and then Oswald started on his way; and an hour
later entered the tavern, and took his seat with three or four of the
men from the hold, and called for wine for the party. He sat there for
some time, and then one said:

"It is half-past eight; we had best be going. At seven o'clock the
gates are shut; but they are opened, for those who belong to the hold,
till nine, after which none are admitted till morning, and any who come
in then are reported to Baird, and they are lucky if they get off with
half a dozen extra goes of sentry duty. Baird is a good master in many
things, but he is a bad man to deal with, when he is angry; and if
anyone was to be out a second time, and he did it too soon after the
first offence, he would have his skin nearly flayed off his back, with
a stirrup leather. There is no fooling with the Bairds."

Oswald arranged with Roger that, if the latter remained in the castle,
he should always come down half an hour before the garrison were
moving, as they might then exchange a word or two unseen; and
accordingly, he took his place at an angle of a building, where he
could keep his eye on the steps leading up to the battlements, on the
north side.

Presently he saw Roger descending. He waved his hand, and caught his
follower's eye; and the latter, on reaching the courtyard, at once
joined him.

"I have a rope, Roger," Oswald began, "that will reach from the turret
to the foot of the craig. I took it off during the night, and have just
hidden it away behind a pile of rubbish, in the stable. Are th