bridge up, they could only cross to us by rafts or
boats, and then they couldn't get in."

"Well, sir, it's like this. I've heard tell, though I'd forgotten all
about it till just now, as there's a sort o' passage goes out from the
dungeons under the nor'-west tower over to the little ruins on the hill
over yonder."

"Impossible! Why, it would have to be half a mile long, Ben."

"All that, sir."

"But it couldn't go under the moat. It would be full of water."

"Nay, not if it was made tight, sir."

"But what makes you say that? You've never seen the passage?"

"No, sir, I've never been down, but your father once said something
about it. It was a long time before that tower was done up and made
right for Master Pawson. I don't recollect much about it, but I suppose
it must be there."

"That's another thing to see to, then," said Roy. "Because, if it does
exist, and the enemy heard of it, he might come in and surprise us. I
know; we'll find it, and block it up."

"Nay, I wouldn't do that, sir. It might be that we should have to go
away, and it isn't a bad thing to have a way out in case of danger."

"Not likely to do that, Ben," said Roy, haughtily. "We are going to
hold the place."

"Yes, sir, as long as we can; but we can't do impossibilities. Now,
sir, will you go and have your bit o' dinner, while I have mine?"

"Oh, I don't feel as if I could eat, Ben; I'm too full of excitement."

"More reason why you should go and have your dinner, sir. Man can't
fight without he eats and drinks."

"Nor a boy, neither--eh, Ben?"

"That's so, sir; only I wouldn't be talking before the men about being
only a boy. You leave them to say it if they like. But they won't;
they'll judge you by what you do, sir; and if you act like a man,
they'll look at you as being the one in command of them, and behave like
it."

"Very well, I'll go to dinner, and in an hour meet you here."

"Fifty minutes, sir. It's a good ten minutes since the men went in."

Roy joined his mother, feeling, as he said, too full of excitement to
eat; but he found the meal ready, with one of the maids in attendance,
and everything so calm and quiet, that, as they sat chatting, it seemed
as if all this excitement were as unsubstantial as the distant rumours
of war; while, when the meal was at an end, his mother's words tended to
lend some of her calm to his excited brain.

"I have been hearing of all that you have done, Roy," she said.