e a missionary, and you know how to promote
the spiritual good of your people."

"They work!" replied Anton, with greater cheerfulness than he had felt
for the last four-and-twenty hours.

The well had now become so deep that it became necessary to have a
ladder to descend by; the ground got damper and damper, till the men
worked in a perfect swamp. The mud had to be taken out in buckets; but
the people were more eager than ever, and the buckets flew from hand to
hand, while all laughed like little children at the mud-sprinkling their
impatience got. The mud wall rose rapidly above the palings, and wood
and stones were thrown in to consolidate it. Anton could hardly get the
little doorway kept open. Meanwhile there was restless agitation among
the enemy. Horsemen rode rapidly along the line of sentries, and watched
the progress of the new fortification: from time to time, one would
venture nearer than the rest, then withdraw as soon as the forester
raised his gun above the wall. Thus hour after hour passed; the sun sank
down, and the red light of evening suffused the sky. But those in the
court-yard took no heed of it, for at the bottom of the well the men
were standing up to their waists in water. It was a yellow, dirty liquid
enough; but the people stared down the hole as though streams of gold
were flowing there. At last, when the twilight shadows lay dark on its
mouth, Anton ordered the diggers to leave the well. A coarse sheet was
brought, and laid over the water-butt, and the water strained through
it.

"My horses first," cried one of the servants, snatching a bucketful for
the thirsting animals.

"When it has settled a little, it will be as good as river-water,"
exclaimed the smith, in delight.

As for the diggers, they were never tired of tasting, and each
triumphantly corroborated the worthy man's assertion. Meanwhile, Anton
had fresh palings driven into the mud rampart, and the strong planks of
the potato-carts securely fastened to them. At nightfall all was
finished. The women kept straining water into the butt. Great joints of
meat were taken to the kitchen, where a brisk fire was crackling away,
and the cheerful hopes of an excellent supper rose in the hearts of the
besieged.

Then the drums of the enemy were again heard, and the shrill call of
Fink's whistle vibrated through the castle. For a moment the men in the
court-yard stood still; they had, during the last few hours, thought
little about the