Having him
in my power, I lowered him until I heard his body splash in the
water in the lower part of the pipe. Then I proceeded to draw him
up again, intending to question him in regard to Rupert of Glasgow.
But this was difficult, as his saturated clothing made him fit the
smooth pipe closely. At last I had him partly up, when I was
amazed at a rush of water from the pipe which flooded the room. I
dropped him and pulled him up again with the same result. Then in
a flash I saw it all. His body, acting like a piston in the pipe,
had converted it into a powerful pump. Mad with joy, I rapidly
lowered and pulled him up again and again, until the castle was
flooded--and the moat completely drained! I had created the
diversion I wished; the tenants of the castle were disorganized and
bewildered in trying to escape from the deluge, and the moat was
accessible to my friends. Placing the poor King on a table to be
out of the water, and tying up his head in my handkerchief to
disguise him from Michael's guards, I drew my sword and plunged
downstairs with the cataract in search of the miscreant Rupert. I
reached the drawbridge, when I heard the sounds of tumult and was
twice fired at,--once, as I have since learned, by my friends,
under the impression that I was the escaping Rupert of Glasgow, and
once by Black Michael's myrmidons, under the belief that I was the
King.
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