At last she reached the wall right under the great projecting corbel of the window, and, very cautiously putting down her arm, she felt the chain.
“Hurrah!” she shouted, “I have it”; but she spoke too soon. As she pulled the chain, the tub over-balanced and Aline tumbled head first into the moat. Audry collapsed altogether at this and rolled over on to the grass.
Ian, however, for the moment took it seriously and was going to jump in, but Audry seized one of his ankles to stop him and laughed still more till the tears ran down her cheeks. “You’ll kill me, you two,” she said, as Aline’s head appeared above the water with long green weeds hanging in her hair.
Aline swam to the chain and found that the ball was very heavy. She then righted the tub.
“Get in, get in quickly,” shouted Audry mischievously, and Aline, without thinking, made the attempt with the result that the tub lifted and turned over on her like an extinguisher. Audry was convulsed.
“You little mischief,” said Ian, and picked her up and held her out over the water at arm’s length; but she only laughed the more.
Aline meanwhile again righted the tub and then shouted to the others to bring an axe. Audry refused to go. She said she must wait for the end of the performance. So Master Richard ran and called one of the men, who brought the things required.
While he was gone Aline, with difficulty, got the ball into the tub. She then swam across for the axe and, taking it over, she cut the chain, threw the axe in with the ball and, pushing the tub before her, swam back to the other side.
“You will be getting to know this moat,” said Audry, as Ian pulled Aline, all dripping, up the bank. “This is your third adventure in the moat since you came.”
She then went up and changed her clothes and joined the others in the solar. There she found that Father Laurence had just arrived. He was looking worn and worried, but a smile lit up his face as Aline came in.