Knight's Castle Read Online Free PDF Page B

more spunky than yeomanly. "All right! I came to help the good guys beat the bad guys! And that means you!"
    Bois-Guilbert burst into unpleasant laughter. "And didst think a Templar's cheek would pale before a minikin
your
size?" he cried. "Away with him to the dungeon for the rats to nibble till he is ready to speak the truth!"
    Maybe it was the mention of the rats that did it. Because if Roger had thought twice, he'd have gone quietly to the dungeon and bided his time, and let the story go on from there, and the ending might have been very different. There might have been a fair jailer's daughter to set him free, or there might have been a secret passage from the dungeon, or the rats might have proved friendly, and nibbled his bonds instead of him.
    But which of these fascinating things would have happened will never be known, for Roger didn't think twice. He lost his temper instead, which is a dangerous thing to lose when you are in the middle of a magic adventure.
    "Your time is up, Templar!" he cried. "Might as well throw in the sponge now! Wilfred of Ivanhoe beats you in the end, anyway, you know!"
    "Ha!" cried Bois-Guilbert. "So
he
is thy master, is he?" He spat elegantly into a corner. "
That
for Wilfred of Ivanhoe! Knowest thou not he fell wounded at the end of the tournament and none hath seen him since? Where's your Wilfred of Ivanhoe now? Dead, that's where!"
    "A lot you know about it!" said Roger, throwing precaution to the winds. "He's lying wounded right here in this castle now!"
    "Oh, he is, is he?" said Bois-Guilbert, interestedly.
    "Yes, he is," said Roger. "Rebecca's been taking care of him."
    "Oh, she hath, hath she?" said Bois-Guilbert.
    "Yes, and then when the castle catches fire he gets rescued," said Roger.

 
    "Oh, the castle catcheth fire, doth it?" said Bois-Guilbert.
    "Yes, and you know what? Robin Hood and his band are waiting outside right now, getting ready to besiege you, and guess who's with them? The Black Knight, that's who! Only do you know who it really is? It's King Richard, back from the Crusades, in disguise!" Roger finished triumphantly.
    "Oh, it is, is it?" said Bois-Guilbert.
    "Yes, it is," said Roger.
    "One thing more," said Bois-Guilbert. "About this fire in the castle. Where doth it start?"
    "Well," said Roger, "in the book it starts in the fuel magazine, but in the movie it starts in the dungeon."
    "I know not this word movie," said Bois-Guilbert, "but just to be on the safe side ... Guards, ho!" he suddenly called.
    Men in armor started pouring into the room from all sides, and it was then that Roger realized, too late, what he had done. He had been overconfident. He had been boastful and too full of himself, and he had given the whole show away, and betrayed Ivanhoe and his friends into the hands of their enemies! Even so, he couldn't understand it. This wasn't the way the story went, at all!
    "Form bucket brigades!" Bois-Guilbert was saying. "Some in the dungeon and some in the fuel magazine. Observe fire prevention rules. Watch out for flying sparks! Put out any flame thou seest!"
    Some of the guards scurried off to do his bidding.
    "You can't do that; it's not in the book!" cried Roger, running up to Bois-Guilbert.
    "What is this talk of books?" said the Templar. "Out of my way!" He gave Roger a push to one side, and turned to some of the others. "Fetch me hither the wounded knight Rebecca hath been tending," he said grimly. "Stay not to be over-gentle with him, neither!"
    "I didn't mean it! I take it back! It isn't him!" Roger cried, forgetting all grammar and running up on Bois-Guilbert's other side, to pummel at him vainly, as high up as he could reach.
    But already more guards had hurried away to fetch Ivanhoe, and Bois-Guilbert, shaking Roger off, turned to the rest of his followers. "To arms!" he cried. "Enemies are without! A scurvy outlaw band led by him who calleth himself the Black Knight. But we shall be ready for them. Hugo, prepare the molten lead. De Bracy,