I struck out, and began to swim round the great walls which frowned above me.I could see only three yards ahead;I had then good hopes of not being seen, as I crept along close under the damp, moss-grown masonry.There were lights from the new part of the Castle on the other side, and now and again I heard laughter and merry shouts.I fancied I recognized young Rupert Hentzau's ringing tones, and pictured him flushed with wine.Recalling my thoughts to the business in hand, I rested a moment.If Johann's description were right, I must be near the window now.
Very slowly I moved; and out of the darkness ahead loomed a shape.
It was the pipe, curving from the window to the water:
about four feet of its surface were displayed;it was as big round as two men.I was about to approach it, when I saw something else, and my heart stood still.The nose of a boat protruded beyond the pipe on the other side;and listening intently, I heard a slight shuffle--as of a man shifting his position.Who was the man who guarded Michael's invention?
Was he awake or was he asleep? I felt if my knife were ready, and trod water; as I did so, I found bottom under my feet.
The foundations of the Castle extended some fifteen inches, making a ledge; and I stood on it, out of water from my armpits upwards.
Then I crouched and peered through the darkness under the pipe, where, curving, it left a space.
There was a man in the boat.A rifle lay by him--I saw the gleam of the barrel.Here was the sentinel! He sat very still.
I listened; he breathed heavily, regularly, monotonously.
By heaven, he slept! Kneeling on the shelf, I drew forward under the pipe till my face was within two feet of his.