Ebearhard laughed.

“You put it very flatteringly, Roland.  Truth is, you’d fight till I succumbed, my swordsmanship being no match for yours.  I shall say the words, however, that will cause you to draw your sword, and they are:  Commander, I will stand by you whatever you do.”

“And I,” said Greusel curtly.

Roland shook hands in turn with the two men.

“Right,” he cried.  “If we are fated to go down, we will fall with banners flying.”

After a time the captain returned with his supplies, but still the majority of the guild remained engaged in deliberation.  Evidently discussion was not proceeding with that unanimity which Kurzbold always insisted was the case.

At noon Roland requested the captain to send some of his men with a meal for those in prolonged session, and also to carry them a cask which had been half-emptied either that morning or the night before.

“They will enjoy a picnic under the trees by the margin of the river,” said Roland, as he and his two backers sat down in the empty cabin to their own repast.

“Do you think they are purposely delaying, so that you cannot cross over this afternoon?”

“’Tis very likely,” said Roland.  “I’ll wait here until the sun sets, and then when they realize that I am about to leave them on an uninhabited island, without anything to eat, I think you will see them scramble aboard.”

“But suppose they don’t,” suggested Greusel.  “There are at least three of them able to swim across this narrow branch of the Rhine, and engage a boatman to take them off, should their signaling be unobserved.”

“Again no matter.  My plan for the undoing of the castles does not depend on force, but on craft.  We three cannot carry away as much gold as can twenty-one, but our shares will be the same, and then we are not likely to find again so full a treasury as that at Rheinstein.  My belief that these chaps would fight was dispelled by their conduct last night.  Think of eighteen armed men flying before one sword!”

“Ah, you are scarce just in your estimate, Commander.  They were under the influence of wine.”

“True; but a brave man will fight, drunk or sober.”

Although the sun sank out of sight, the men did not return.  There had been more wine in the cask than Roland supposed, for the cheery songs of the guild echoed through the sylvan solitude.  Roland told the captain to set his men at work and row round the top of the island into the main stream of the Rhine.  The revelers had evidently appointed watchmen, for they speedily came running through the woods, and followed the movements of the boat from the shore, keeping pace with it.  When the craft reached the opposite side of the island, the rowers drew in to the beach.

“Are you coming aboard?” asked Roland pleasantly.

“Will you agree to pass Furstenberg during the night?” demanded Kurzbold.