creep through all in a line one
arter t'other."

"Hist! cease talking," whispered Roy, "or you'll be heard."

The warning came too late, for an order delivered in a low tone a short
distance away was followed by a tramping as if a line of horses was
approaching cautiously.

"How many of you can swim? Now, as many as can, come across."

But no one stirred, and the trampling came on.

"Do you hear?" said Roy, in an angry whisper; "are you afraid?"

"Fear'd to leave our comrades as can't swim, sir," said the man who had
first spoken.

"What's to be done," exclaimed Roy, excitedly.

But there was no response, for he was standing there upon the rampart
alone.

The boy was in an agony of doubt and dread, for the right thing to do in
such an emergency would not come to his inexperienced brain. He divined
that Ben had gone for assistance, but he felt that before he could be
back, the brave fellows who were trying to come to their aid would be
surrounded by the enemy and taken prisoners.

To add to his horror and excitement, he plainly heard from the enemy's
line the word given to dismount. This was followed by the jingle of
accoutrements as the men sprang from their horses, and a loud bang--
evidently of a steel headpiece falling to the ground.

To speak to the unarmed men from the farm was to obtain an answer and
proclaim their whereabouts to the enemy; so Roy was baffled there; and,
at his wit's end, he was about to order them to make their way to the
bridge, when the man on the tower above challenged again:

"Stand, or I fire!"

"Draw swords! Forward, quick!" came from out of the darkness.

The sharp rattle and noise told that the party must be large, and like a
call just then a horse uttered a tremendous neigh.

Involuntarily, at the first order from beyond the moat, Roy had half
drawn his own sword, but thrust it angrily back as he realised his
impotence, and reached forward to try and make out what was going on
below him; for there was a loud splashing noise in the water as if the
men were lowering themselves into the moat, the reeds and rushes
crackled and whispered, and there was a panting sound and a low
ejaculation or two.

"Now, every one his man," said some one, sharply.

_Bang, bang_! and a couple of flashes of light from the top of the tower
just above Roy's head; and as the splashing went on, there was a loud
trampling of feet.

"On with you!" roared the same voice. "They'll be an hour