“One, indeed!” she exclaimed, with affected indignation.  “I shall be first lieutenant or nothing.”

“Up to this moment Herr Joseph Greusel, who so unceremoniously made your acquaintance, has been my chief lieutenant, but I willingly depose him, and give you his place.”

“Do you hear that, Joseph?” Hilda called up to the man leaning over the balcony.

The deposed one made a grimace, but no reply.

“Set your guard, and come down, Greusel.”

Presently Greusel appeared in the courtyard, followed by four men.

“I have left two on guard,” he said.

“Right.  What have you done with the servants?”

“Tied them up in a hard knot.  I found a loft full of ropes.”

“Right again.  Take your four men, and stand guard at the door.  Send Ebearhard to me.”

Before Ebearhard arrived, Roland turned to the girl.

“Retire to your room,” he said, “and bid your women gather together whatever you wish to carry with you.”

“I’d rather stay where I am,” protested Hilda, “being anxious to hear what your plans are.  I confess I don’t know how you can emerge from this Castle in safety.”

“Fraeulein Hilda, the first duty of a chief lieutenant is obedience.”

“Refusing that, what will you do?”

“I shall call two of my men, cause you to be transported to your room, and order them to see that you do not leave it again.”

“Remaining here when you have departed?”

“That, of course.”

“You will take the gold, however.”

“Certainly; the gold obeys me; doing what I ask of it.”

For a few moments the girl stood there, gazing defiance at him, but although a slight smile hovered about his lips, she realized in some subtle way—­woman’s intuition, perhaps—­that he meant what he said.  Her eyes lowered, and an expression of pique came into her pretty face; then she breathed a long sigh.

“I shall go to my room,” she said very quietly.

“I will call upon you the moment I have given some instructions to my third lieutenant.”

“You need not trouble,” she replied haughtily, speaking, however, as mildly as himself.  “I remain a prisoner of the Pfalzgraf von Stahleck, who, though a distinguished pillager like yourself, nevertheless possesses some instincts of a gentleman.”

With that, the young woman retired slowly up the stairway, and disappeared, followed by her two servants.

“Ebearhard,” said Roland, when that official appeared, “Greusel has discovered a window to the north through which yourself and a number of your men can get down to the rocks with the aid of a cord, and he tells me there is a loft full of ropes.  A flotilla of boats is tied up at the lower end of the Castle.  He has visited the treasury, and finds it well supplied with bags of coin.  I intend to effect a junction between those bags and that flotilla.  Our position here is quite untenable, for there is probably some secret entrance to this Castle that we know nothing of.  There are also a number of women within whom we cannot coerce, and must not starve.  Truth to tell, I fear them more than I do the ruffians outside.  Have any of the men-at-arms discovered that we pulled up the ladder and closed the door?”