Men of Iron. Говард Пайл

white and pied, clapping and clattering in noisy flight through the sunny air. Several windows, some closed with shutters, peeped here and there from out the leaves, and near the top of the pile was a row of arched openings, as though of a balcony or an airy gallery.

      Myles had more than once felt an idle curiosity about this tower, and one day, as he and Gascoyne sat together, he pointed his finger and said, “What is yon place?”

      “That,” answered Gascoyne, looking over his shoulder – “that they call Brutus Tower, for why they do say that Brutus he built it when he came hither to Britain. I believe not the tale mine own self; ne’theless, it is marvellous ancient, and old Robin-the-Fletcher telleth me that there be stairways built in the wall and passage-ways, and a maze wherein a body may get lost, an he know not the way aright, and never see the blessed light of day again.”

      “Marry,” said Myles, “those same be strange sayings. Who liveth there now?”

      “No one liveth there,” said Gascoyne, “saving only some of the stable villains, and that half-witted goose-herd who flung stones at us yesterday when we mocked him down in the paddock. He and his wife and those others dwell in the vaults beneath, like rabbits in any warren. No one else hath lived there since Earl Robert’s day, which belike was an hundred years agone. The story goeth that Earl Robert’s brother – or step-brother – was murdered there, and some men say by the Earl himself. Sin that day it hath been tight shut.”

      Myles stared at the tower for a while in silence. “It is a strange-seeming place from without,” said he, at last, “and mayhap it may be even more strange inside. Hast ever been within, Francis?”

      “Nay,” said Gascoyne; “said I not it hath been fast locked since Earl Robert’s day?”

      “By’r Lady,” said Myles, “an I had lived here in this place so long as thou, I wot I would have been within it ere this.”

      “Beshrew me,” said Gascoyne, “but I have never thought of such a matter.” He turned and looked at the tall crown rising into the warm sunlight with a new interest, for the thought of entering it smacked pleasantly of adventure. “How wouldst thou set about getting within?” said he, presently.

      “Why, look,” said Myles; “seest thou not yon hole in the ivy branches? Methinks there is a window at that place. An I mistake not, it is in reach of the stable eaves. A body might come up by the fagot pile to the roof of the hen-house, and then by the long stable to the north stable, and so to that hole.”

      Gascoyne looked thoughtfully at the Brutus Tower, and then suddenly inquired, “Wouldst go there?”

      “Aye,” said Myles, briefly.

      “So be it. Lead thou the way in the venture, I will follow after thee,” said Gascoyne.

      As Myles had said, the climbing from roof to roof was a matter easy enough to an active pair of lads like themselves; but when, by-and-by, they reached the wall of the tower itself, they found the hidden window much higher from the roof than they had judged from below – perhaps ten or twelve feet – and it was, besides, beyond the eaves and out of their reach.

      Myles looked up and looked down. Above was the bushy thickness of the ivy, the branches as thick as a woman’s wrist, knotted and intertwined; below was the stone pavement of a narrow inner court between two of the stable buildings.

      “Methinks I can climb to yon place,” said he.

      “Thou’lt break thy neck an thou tryest,” said Gascoyne, hastily.

      “Nay,” quoth Myles, “I trust not; but break or make, we get not there without trying. So here goeth for the venture.”

      “Thou art a hare-brained knave as ever drew breath of life,” quoth Gascoyne, “and will cause me to come to grief some of these fine days. Ne’theless, an thou be Jack Fool and lead the way, go, and I will be Tom Fool and follow anon. If thy neck is worth so little, mine is worth no more.”

      It was indeed a perilous climb, but that special providence which guards reckless lads befriended them, as it has thousands of their kind before and since. So, by climbing from one knotted, clinging stem to another, they were presently seated snugly in the ivied niche in the window. It was barred from within by a crumbling shutter, the rusty fastening of which, after some little effort upon the part of the two, gave way, and entering the narrow opening, they found themselves in a small triangular passage-way, from which a steep flight of stone steps led down through a hollow in the massive wall to the room below.