have been seen; they
provoked jests from the prisoners of the other dormitories, who
declared that sure their music had made them all melancholy.

"It must be tonight, Joe," I said, when, our morning tasks being
done, he and I went apart from the rest for a little private talk.
"If we delay it, I cannot answer for their behavior."

"That is all very true, sir," said Joe; "but I can not see how we
are to manage it. There's a hole in the wall, to be sure, and a new
rope on the windlass of the well: but how we be going to get the
rope where 'tis needed is more than I can guess."

"Don't you think that by tonight our drum will want washing?" I
said.

He looked at me, clearly puzzled at what seemed a sudden change of
subject.

"'Tis very dirty, to be sure; but washing it won't make it sound no
better, I reckon."

"I rather think it will," I replied, and then I told him what I had
in mind.

"'Tis a main risky trick, sir," he said dubiously. "If they should
happen to want another bucketful of water we're lost men."

"We must risk something, Joe," I answered, "and fortune has so well
befriended us hitherto that I can't think she will balk us now."

But I own that my anxieties increased as the day wore on, and my
melancholy countenance was doubtless a good match with the faces of
my comrades. When one of the other prisoners twitted me on my
lugubrious mien, I had an inspiration.

"We are saving our cheerfulness for the concert tonight," I said.
"'Twill be the best we have ever given, and we shall never give a
better."

And for the rest of the day there was a great buzz of talk among
the men about the announcement I had made, and a great deal of
laughter at our mournful preparation for a cheerful entertainment.

Late in the afternoon, when water drawing had ended for the day, I
went to one of the soldiers and asked if I might be allowed to wash
our big drum.

"Why, 'twill spoil it," he cried. "You'll get no sound out of a wet
skin."

"I shall only wash one side," I replied, "and it will give a
thicker sound than the dry one, and so add to the variety of the
piece we are going to play."

"Well, wash it then," he said, and went off grinning to tell his
comrades of this latest whimsy.

I fetched the drum from the corner of the room where it lay, and
carried it to the well within the keep. The members of the band
were in the secret, and I had asked them to hold the attention of
the other prisoners while I set