at it will not be needed. I saw
a bit of iron, in the stables, that I think I can bend into a hook for
the rope; and if I can't, I have no doubt that you can.

"That is all. You had better move away now. People will be stirring,
directly."

That night, at ten o'clock, when all in the hold had been asleep half
an hour, Oswald rose quietly from the rushes, on which he and a dozen
of his comrades were sleeping, and made his way noiselessly out of the
room; went into the stables and fetched the piece of iron, which he
had, during the day, placed so that he could feel it in the dark; took
the coil of rope in his hands, and ascended the steps. The top was but
some ten feet from the turret. He stood quiet, until he heard the
sentry moving away from him, then he mounted the last steps, and in a
moment reached the foot of the turret stairs. Roger was standing there.

"All right, master!" he whispered. "I took the priest by surprise, and
he was gagged before he knew what was happening. I tore the blanket up
into strips, and tied him down onto his pallet with them. He is safe
enough.

"Now for the sentries. I will take the one to the right, first. I will
go out and stand in the angle. It is a dark night, and there is no
chance of his seeing me. When you hear his walk cease, you will know
that I have got him. I have managed to bring up a rope, that I have cut
into handy lengths. Here are two of them.

"There, he has just turned, so I will go at once."

"How about the trapdoor?"

"It is all right, master. It is bolted on the inside. They have tried
the bolts, and find they can move them;" and with these words, he at
once stepped noiselessly out.

Oswald stood listening. Presently he heard the returning steps of the
sentry. They came close up to the turret, and then suddenly ceased.

He at once hurried round. The sentry hung limp in Roger's grasp. Oswald
bound his hands tightly, and twisted the rope three or four times round
his body, and securely knotted it. Then he tied the ankles tightly
together.

"I will lay him down," Roger whispered, when he had done so.

Oswald bent the man's legs and, trussing him up, fastened the rope from
the ankles to that which bound the wrists. Roger now relaxed his grip
of the man's throat, thrust a piece of wood between his teeth, and
fastened it, by a string going round the back of the head. He then took
off his steel cap, and laid it some distance away.

"That will do for him, master.