Just as we came to the top, Ludar turned.
"Follow close, my men; shout, and discharge your pieces if you can," called he, "and once entered, make for the drawbridge." Almost as he spoke, we heard a shout above us, and the report of a musket discharged into the darkness.

A sentinel had heard our voices, and this was his greeting.
Next moment I saw Ludar on the top, struggling with a man.

It was too dark to discern which was which; but a moment later, one of the two staggered a step backwards to the edge.

There was a yell, a shower of loose earth; then, as I stood below clinging to the rock, a dark mass fell betwixt me and the sky, brushing me as it passed, and bounding from the ledge below with a hideous crash out into the deepness.
I stood there an instant as cold and pulse-less as the stone against which I leaned.

What if this were Ludar who had fallen?
A voice from above restored me to life.
"Quick there, come up, and the place is ours!" In a moment I stood beside him on the narrow edge of grass between the castle wall and the brink.