lowered him until I heard his body splash in the water in the lower
part of the pipe. Then I proceeded to draw him up again, intending to
question him in regard to Rupert of Glasgow. But this was difficult, as
his saturated clothing made him fit the smooth pipe closely. At last I
had him partly up, when I was amazed at a rush of water from the pipe
which flooded the room. I dropped him and pulled him up again with the
same result. Then in a flash I saw it all. His body, acting like a
piston in the pipe, had converted it into a powerful pump. Mad with
joy, I rapidly lowered and pulled him up again and again, until the
castle was flooded--and the moat completely drained! I had created the
diversion I wished; the tenants of the castle were disorganized and
bewildered in trying to escape from the deluge, and the moat was
accessible to my friends. Placing the poor King on a table to be out
of the water, and tying up his head in my handkerchief to disguise him
from Michael's guards, I drew my sword and plunged downstairs with the
cataract in search of the miscreant Rupert. I reached the drawbridge,
when I heard the sounds of tumult and was twice fired at,--once, as I
have since learned, by my friends, under the impression that I was the
escaping Rupert of Glasgow, and once by Black Michael's myrmidons,
under the belief that I was the King. I was struck by the fact that
these resemblances were confusing and unfortunate! At this moment,
however, I caught sight of a kilted figure leaping from a lower window
into the moat. Some instinct impelled me to follow it. It rapidly
crossed the moat and plunged into the forest, with me in pursuit. I
gained upon it; suddenly it turned, and I found myself again confronted
with MYSELF--and apparently the King! But that very resemblance made
me recognize the Scotch pretender, Rupert of Glasgow. Yet he would
have been called a "braw laddie," and his handsome face showed a
laughing good humor, even while he opposed me, claymore in hand.

"Bide a wee, Maister Rupert Razorbill," he said lightly, lowering his
sword, "before we slit ane anither's weasands. I'm no claimin' any
descent frae kings, and I'm no acceptin' any auld wife's clavers
against my women forbears, as ye are! I'm just paid gude honest siller
by Black Michael for the using of ma face and figure--sic time as his
Majesty is tae worse frae trink! And I'm commeesioned frae Michael to
ask ye what price YE would take to