se there they get talking about me as if I was so very old; but I'll
let some of 'em see. Why, I want five year o' being a hundred yet, and
look at what they used to be in the Scripter. I'll keep the gate fast,
sir--I did this morning, didn't I, when they three dragoons come up?"

"Yes, capitally, Jenk--but I must go. I'm busy."

"That's right, sir--you go. Don't you be uneasy about the gate, sir.
I'll see to that."

"Yes," said Roy to himself, "it is the spirit that does it. Now I
wonder whether I've got spirit enough to do all the work before me!"

He hurried back over the drawbridge, and glanced down into the clear
moat where he could see the great pike lying, but he did not stop to
think about catching it, for he hurried on to the servants' hall,
drawing himself up as he felt the importance of his position, and upon
entering, the three troopers, who were seated at a good substantial
meal, all rose and saluted their colonel's son.

"Got all you want, men?" said Roy, startling himself by his decisive way
of speaking.

"Yes, sir; plenty, sir," said the man who bore the despatch. "Master
Martlet saw to that."

"That's right. Now, look here, of course we want you and your horses to
have a good rest, but when do you think you'll be ready to take a
despatch back?"

"Take a despatch back, sir?" said the man, staring. "We're not to take
anything back."

"Yes; a letter to my father."

"No, sir. Colonel Sir Granby Royland's, orders were that we were to
stop here and to help take care of the castle."

"Were those my father's commands?" cried Roy, eagerly.

"Yes, sir, to all three of us--all five of us, it were, and I'm sorry I
couldn't bring the other two with me; but I did my best, didn't I,
lads?"

"Ay, corporal," chorused the others.

"Oh, that's capital!" cried Roy, eagerly. "It relieves me of a good
deal of anxiety. But my father--he'll expect a letter back."

"No, sir; he said there was no knowing where he would be with the
regiment, and we were to stay here till he sent orders for us to
rejoin."

"Where is Martlet?" asked Roy then.

"Said something about an armoury," replied the corporal.

Roy hurried off, and in a few minutes found the old soldier busy with a
bottle of oil and a goose feather, applying the oil to the mechanism of
a row of firelocks.

"Oh, here you are, Ben," cried Roy, excitedly. "News for you, man."

"Ay, ay, sir, I've heard," said the old soldier, sadly. "More ru