, and fairly defeated them before I came on
the scene. That thought of yours of laying the door upon the stairs
was a masterly one, and you rarely met and defeated every device of the
enemy.

"Now, if you will, I will mount this stronghold of yours with you, and
see exactly how it stands, for I shall have to tell the tale a score of
times at least when I get back to camp, and I can do it all the better
after I have seen for myself the various features of the place."

By the time they had mounted the top of the tower and Captain Burgh had
fully satisfied himself as to the details of the defence the troopers
began to return. Their horses were far too fatigued with the long ride
from the camp and the subsequent pursuit to be able to travel farther.
Fires were accordingly lit, rations distributed, and a halt ordered till
the following morning, when, at daybreak, they returned to the Lech.

Two days later Malcolm and his men marched forward with a brigade
which was advancing to reinforce the army under Gustavus, and reached
Ingolstadt on the day when the king raised the siege, and accompanied
him on his march to Munich.

Malcolm on rejoining was greeted with great pleasure by his comrades,
who had made up their minds that he had in some way fallen a victim to
the peasants. The noncommissioned officers and men of his party had been
severely reprimanded for leaving the village without finding him. In
their defence they declared that they had searched every house and shed,
and, having found no sign of him, or of any struggle having taken place,
they supposed that he must have returned alone. But their excuses were
not held to be valid, the idea of Malcolm having left his men without
orders being so preposterous that it was held it should never have been
entertained for a moment by them.

"I shall never be anxious about you again," Nigel Graheme said, when
Malcolm finished the narrative of his adventures to the officers of his
regiment as they sat round the campfire on the evening when he rejoined
them. "This is the third or fourth time that I have given you up for
dead. Whatever happens in the future, I shall refuse to believe the
possibility of any harm having come to you, and shall be sure that
sooner or later you will walk quietly into camp with a fresh batch of
adventures to tell us. Whoever of us may be doomed to lay our bones in
this German soil, it will not be you. Some good fairy has distinctly
taken charge of you,