“What’s wrong, captain?” cried Kurzbold, getting on his feet again and running aft.
“I fear, sir, ‘tis an anchored chain.”
“Can’t you cut it?”
“That is impossible, mein Herr.”
“Then get out your sweeps, and turn back. Where are we, do you think?”
“Under the battlements of Furstenberg Castle.”
“Damnation! Put some speed into your men, and let us get away from here.”
The captain ordered his crew to hurry, but all their efforts could not release the boat from the chain, against which it ground up and down with a tearing noise, and even the un-nautical swordsmen saw that the current was impelling it diagonally toward the shore, and all the while the deep bell tolled on.
“What in the fiend’s name is the meaning of that bell?” demanded Kurzbold.
“It is the Castle bell, mein Herr,” replied the captain.