more graceful mode of ascending the peak than riding up on the donkeys
I had been persuaded to buy, especially for Poopendyke and me, whose
legs were so long that when we sat in the saddles our knees either
touched our chins or were spread out so far that we resembled the
Prussian coat-of-arms.

[Illustration: I found myself staring as if stupefied at the white
figure of a woman who stood in the topmost balcony]

That evening, after the workmen had filed down the steep looking for
all the world like an evacuating army, I sought a few moments of peace
and quiet in the small balcony outside my bedroom windows. My room was
in the western wing of the castle, facing the river. The eastern wing
mounted even higher than the one in which we were living, and was
topped by the loftiest watch tower of them all. We had not attempted
to do any work over in that section as yet, for the simple reason that
Herr Schmick couldn't find the keys to the doors.

The sun was disappearing beyond the highlands and a cool, soft breeze
swept up through the valley. I leaned back in a comfortable chair that
Britton had selected for me, and puffed at my pipe, not quite sure
that my serenity was real or assumed. This was all costing me a pretty
penny. Was I, after all, parting with my money in the way prescribed
for fools? Was all this splendid antiquity worth the--

My reflections terminated sharply at that critical instant and I don't
believe I ever felt called upon after that to complete the inquiry.

I found myself staring as if stupefied at the white figure of a woman
who stood in the topmost balcony of the eastern wing, fully revealed