Knight's Castle Read Online Free PDF

It is simply a thing that one knows, and if you have ever been the hero of an adventure yourself, you will understand.
    He stood looking about the great hall interestedly. It was just about as yeomanly as a hall could be, what with trophies on the wall, deerskins on the floor, and a whole boar roasting merrily on a spit in the great fireplace.
    Then he looked at Lionel. Lionel smiled nervously and backed away a few paces, and this gave Roger an idea. He decided to have some fun with the superstitious guard. He went on looking at him for a minute, and then suddenly he made a terrible face and uttered a sepulchral cry.
    "Beware!" he cried.
    Lionel jumped. "What didst thou say?"
    "Woe!" Roger went on, pleased with the success of his efforts. "Wurra wurra. Pity the poor Normans on a day like this!"
    Lionel was looking pale. "Wherefore sayest thou such?" he asked. "Whence earnest thou hither?"
    "Wouldn't you like to know?" said Roger, forgetting to sound like a grim oracle and sounding like a mere boy. Then he recollected himself and started over. "Ask not the dread name of whence I came," he said, "but hearken to my dire words. This day bringeth doom to all Normans within this castle!"
    "Oh, dear," said Lionel. "Doth it really? What shall I do to be saved?"
    "Flee," said Roger.
    Lionel turned, and started to flee. But at that moment Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Maurice De Bracy entered the hall.
    Both knights were thoroughly out of sorts, because they had both just been interrupted in important love scenes, and both their ladies had just rejected their proposals. Bois-Guilbert in particular was in a vile mood. He stalked up to Roger and stood glaring down at him.
    Roger began feeling less reckless. It is one thing to play with a toy castle and wish you were back in the golden days of chivalry, and it is another thing to be really there, and have one of the greatest villians in all legend stand glaring down at you and breathing the hot breath of wrath in your direction.
    Bois-Guilbert went on glaring for what seemed like ages. Then he said, "So!"
    "Hello," said Roger, trying to smile in an offhand manner.
    "Silence," said Bois-Guilbert. "I perceive that thou art a vile spy. Thou shalt hang from the castle battlements for the crows to pick at, as a warning to all Saxons!"
    "Nay!" cried Maurice De Bracy, ever the less evil of the two villians. "'Tis too harsh a punishment. He is but a child."
    "He is no child," gibbered Lionel, excitedly, "but an elfish spirit come to warn us of disaster!"
    "Tush, Lionel," said De Bracy. "What old wives' tale is this?"
    "Take note of his garb, sir!" Lionel went on, almost in tears and pointing to Roger's summer pajamas. "Saw ye ever the like of that on mortal boy? Nay, but be sure the small fiends dress so, down below, what with the hot climate and all!" Fearfully his hand shot out and caught Roger by the collar of his pajama jacket. He saw the label inside the collar, and recoiled. "B. V. D.!" he read, in tones of horror. "Meaneth not that 'Bene volens diabolus,' or 'Best wishes from the devil?'"
    "Pish, Lionel," said De Bracy. "Thy Latin waxeth rusty." But his voice sounded a bit worried, all the same.
    Bois-Guilbert was made of sterner stuff.
    "Go to," he said. "Never yet did Brian de Bois-Guilbert quail before witch or warlock. I defy the foul fiend. And besides, I don't believe it, anyway. Kneel, minion." And he pushed Roger rudely to his knees before him. "Confess who hath sent ye hither and from what Saxon pigpen ye hail!"
    "Nobody sent me. I came of my own accord," said Roger. "From Baltimore, Maryland."
    "I know no merrie land save England," said De Bracy. "And la belle Normandie, of course."
    "Quiet!" said Bois-Guilbert. "Who conducteth this inquiry, anyway? Minion," he said again to Roger, "for the last time I bid ye speak. What is your errand here?" And he, too, spurned Roger with his mailed foot.
    Once again the spark of anger glowed in the soul of Roger. "All right," he said, in words