hat fellow
some day. He must weigh six or seven pounds. It ought to be a good
time now. Want a strong line, though, and a big hook, for he'd run in
and out among the lily-stems and break mine. Now, if I knew where
father was, I could write and ask him to buy me one and send it down by
his next letter. No: he wouldn't want to be bothered to buy me
fishing-lines when he's with his regiment. I know," he said to himself,
after a pause; "old Ben has got the one he caught the big eel with.
I'll make him lend me that. Poor old Ben! who'd ever have thought that
he could cry. For it was crying just as a little boy would. Seems
funny, because he has been a brave soldier, and saved father's life
once. Shouldn't have thought a man like that could cry."

Roy began to whistle softly, and then picked up a little cushion-like
patch of velvety green moss and pitched it down towards a jackdaw that
was sitting on a projecting stone just below a hole, watching him
intently, first with one eye and then with the other, as if puzzled to
know what he was doing so near to his private residence, where his wife
was sitting upon a late batch of eggs, an accident connected with rats
having happened to the first.

It did not occur to the bird that it was quite impossible for its
nesting-place to be reached without a swing down from above by a rope;
but, being still puzzled, it tried to sharpen its intellectual faculties
by standing on one leg and scratching its grey poll with the claws of
the other, a feat which made it unsteady and nearly topple over towards
the deep moat below.

"_Tah_!" it cried, in resentment of the insult when the little green
moss cushion was thrown; and, as the bird sailed away, Roy rose and
walked slowly along the rampart, through the corner tower, and then on
towards the front, where that over the outer gate-way stood tall,
massive, and square. Here the boy left the rampart, entered through a
low arched door, and stood in the great chamber over the main gate-way,
where the rusty chains were wound round the two capstans, held fast now
by their checks, and suspending the huge grated portcullis, with its
spikes high enough to be clear of a coachman driving a carriage.

"Wonder whether we could let that down?" thought Roy.

He had often had the same thought, but it came very strongly now, and he
began to calculate how many men it would take to lower the portcullis,
and whether he, Ben, and a couple more could ma