usy outside," explained Hugh, "while the other
takes pictures of the fighting going on through the corridors and
apartments of the castle, while the knight and his valorous retainers
are battling their way closer and closer to the place where the captive
'maiden' is held fast behind the locked door. I got all that stuff
straight from Mr. Jefferson, and those are his own words, so don't
laugh."

"Huh! it's too serious a business to do much laughing," grunted Billy.
"I'm just itching all over to see how it comes out. There, that must
have been the signal to start. I can see some of the men beginning
to make an awful smoke with the apparatus they're handling. What a
good imitation of the real thing it is!"

"Whoopee! listen to the big swords clashing inside the castle, will
you?" cried Monkey Stallings. "Say, we're missing great stunts,
believe me, in having to stay out here. I've got half a notion-----"

However, Monkey did not finish the sentence, whatever rash notion was
flitting through his active mind. Possibly he had indulged in a wild
dream that for one of his climbing abilities it might prove feasible
to reach a window above, and by thrusting his head through the
aperture see something of the wonderful things going on in the
passages where the crowd was thronging.

It was the fact of Hugh looking meaningly at him that caused Monkey
to stop in the midst of his sentence, for he saw by the expression
on the face of the scout master that Hugh would not permit any meddling.
The enormous expense and labor attending the taking of that picture
must not be wasted through any injudicious act on the part of himself
or one of his chums.

As the minutes passed the confusion became almost a riot, so it seemed
to Billy. The shouts of the fighting men grew hoarse with constant
repetitions, for naturally they had to give vent to their emotions,
or else much of their efforts would have lacked in the genuine feeling.
How those swords did whack and beat upon each other as slowly but
surely the defenders of the castle were being cut down one by one!

It was terribly realistic, too, with the vast volumes of smoke rising
up in billows, and here and there what seemed to be a red tongue of
fire shooting through the appalling waves of black vapor.

Presently, as the boys understood, matters would reach a climax. This
was when the hero knight attained the goal for which he was striving
so valiantly.

Then he would be seen