lied
Bennet. "Throgmorton's rope is still in the brown chamber. Fare ye
well."

And Hatch, turning upon his heel, disappeared again into the windings of
the passage.

Dick instantly returned for his lamp, and proceeded to act upon the
hint. At one corner of the trap there was a deep cavity in the wall.
Pushing his arm into the aperture, Dick found an iron bar, which he
thrust vigorously upwards. There followed a snapping noise, and the slab
of stone instantly started in its bed.

They were free of the passage. A little exercise of strength easily
raised the trap; and they came forth into a vaulted chamber, opening on
one hand upon the court, where one or two fellows, with bare arms, were
rubbing down the horses of the last arrivals. A torch or two, each stuck
in an iron ring against the wall, changefully lit up the scene.

CHAPTER V

HOW DICK CHANGED SIDES

Dick, blowing out his lamp lest it should attract attention, led the way
up-stairs and along the corridor. In the brown chamber the rope had been
made fast to the frame of an exceeding heavy and ancient bed. It had not
been detached, and Dick, taking the coil to the window, began to lower
it slowly and cautiously into the darkness of the night. Joan stood by;
but as the rope lengthened, and still Dick continued to pay it out,
extreme fear began to conquer her resolution.

"Dick," she said, "is it so deep? I may not essay it. I should
infallibly fall, good Dick."

It was just at the delicate moment of the operations that she spoke.
Dick started; the remainder of the coil slipped from his grasp, and the
end fell with a splash into the moat. Instantly, from the battlement
above, the voice of a sentinel cried, "Who goes?"

"A murrain!" cried Dick. "We are paid now! Down with you--take the
rope."

"I cannot," she cried, recoiling.

"An ye cannot, no more can I," said Shelton. "How can I swim the moat
without you? Do you desert me, then?"

"Dick," she gasped, "I cannot. The strength is gone from me."

"By the mass, then, we are all shent!" he shouted, stamping with his
foot; and then, hearing steps, he ran to the room door and sought to
close it.

Before he could shoot the bolt, strong arms were thrusting it back upon
him from the other side. He struggled for a second; then, feeling
himself overpowered, ran back to the window. The girl had fallen against
the wall in the embrasure of the window; she was more than half
insensible; and when he trie