ght.

"Long time since any one's been in that old dungeon, Master Roy.
Hundred years, I dare say. Maybe we shall be putting some one in, one
of these days!"

"In there? Whom? What for?"

"Prisoners, sir, for fighting against the king." The old fellow
laughed, and went along through the opening on their right, which proved
to be an arched passage very dimly lit by a series of little pipe-like
holes sloping inward through the outer wall of the castle and opening
about a foot above the moat. On their aft were doors of a row of
cellars built beneath the old court-yard; and as Ben walked onward he
said--

"Who'd think as there were green grass and flower-beds up above them,
Master Roy? But we do see changes in this life. Halt! here we are."

He stopped at the end of the passage, where there was a massive oak
door-way facing them beneath a curious old Norman arch, and, after
trying hard with three different keys, the rusty wards of the old lock
allowed one to turn, and the door was pushed wide open, creaking back
against the wall.

"Rather dark, sir," said Ben. "Get on a deal better with a candle; but
it wouldn't do."

Roy peered in, and, as his eyes grew more accustomed to the obscurity,
he made out that he was gazing into a small stone chamber; but there was
no sign of chest or keg, or door leading onward.

"Why, the place is empty, Ben," said the boy, with a sigh of relief.

"We don't know that yet, sir, because we haven't seen it," said Ben,
quietly. "This is only the way to the magazine. People in the old days
knew what dangerous tackle it was, and took care of it according. But
it's going to be a dark job, and no mistake."

The old soldier stepped in, and, stooping down in the middle of the
blank stone chamber, took hold of a large copper ring and drew up one
side of a heavy flagstone, which turned silently upon copper pivots, and
this flag he laid back till it was supported by the ring.

"Looks darker down there, sir," said Ben, as Roy stood beside him and
they tried to pierce the gloom, but only for the latter to make out the
dim outline of a stone step or two.

"You've been down here before, of course?" whispered Roy, as if the
place impressed him.

"Yes, sir; once. There's a door at the bottom, and that's the magazine.
It will be all feeling, sir. Will you go back while I try and get a
keg?"

"No," said Roy, firmly, but with an intense desire to say yes. "I shall
stay while you go do