'd show them how to break through,
no matter what the men on the walls tried to put on us. But shucks!
that'd be too big luck; and besides, it could hardly be fair for
us boys to steal the thunder of those hard-working actors. There,
he's going to give the signal for the mimic war to begin. Everybody
take a big breath and sail in! Now, go it, you terriers; the battle's
on again!"

CHAPTER X

THE ASSAULT ON THE "CASTLE."

"Yes, there goes the signal!" burst from the excited Alec, as they saw
the manager suddenly raise his hand, and fire a revolver three times
in quick succession.

Immediately everybody seemed to get busy at once. Most of the
battle-scarred veterans, who knew their business so well, started in
just about where the last stirring scene had left off. Possibly those
who had been "killed" in the former desperate assault had found time
to come mysteriously to life again, leaving a dummy in their stead to
be ruthlessly trampled on, now assumed new places in the ranks, to make
the assailants and defenders look more like a veritable "host."

The scouts held their breath in very awe. What they were looking at
was indeed quite enough to make any one do that. Certainly no such
remarkable scene had ever before been "set" since those actual days
when Crusaders and Saracens met in mortal combat on the plains of the
Holy Land, and knights went forth to battle in joust and tournament
wearing a fair lady's glove on their helmet as a talisman for luck.

Of course Hugh, as well as most of his young companions, had read
some of the romantic works of Sir Walter Scott, and were familiar
with his vivid descriptions of just such warlike pictures as they
now saw delighted Hugh, indeed, was of the opinion that it might be
one of these that the famous players of the motion picture world were
now acting, and the name of "Ivanhoe" was uppermost in his mind as
he watched the progress of the furious battle.

There were women folks in the castle, too, for occasionally they could
be seen frantically spurring their defenders on to renewed exertions.
Others may have been playing the part of prisoners, for the boys
discovered a white handkerchief waving from a window in one of the
turrets, as though to encourage the assailants in their work. Perhaps
this was Rebecca in her cell, Hugh thought.

All of this just about suited the imagination of red-blooded boys as
proper and right. It had been virtually going on ever