"Yield thee, yield thee, Arvid Horn; yield thee to our unconquerable nozzle," came the summons from the yacht; "yield thee, or I will drown you out like a rat in a cheese-press!" "Arvid Horn yields to no one," the plucky boy in the boat made answer, and with a parting shot and a laughing "_Farval_" he leaped from the sinking boat into the dancing Maelar water. Striking boldly out he swam twice round the boat in sheer bravado, defying the enemy; now ducking to escape the pursuing stream, or now, while floating on his back, sending a return shot with telling force against the men at the pump--for he still clung to his trusty squirt-gun. The fair-faced lad in the yacht looked at the swimmer in evident admiration. "Is it, then, hard to swim, Arvid Horn?" he inquired. "Not if one is fearless," called back the floating boy. "How; fearless?" exclaimed the lad on the yacht, hastily. "Do you perhaps think that I am afraid?" "I said not so," replied young Arvid, coolly sending a full charge from his squirt-gun straight up in air. "No; but you mean it--good faith, you mean it then," said the lad, and flinging off wig, cocked hat, and long coat only, without an instant's hesitation, he, too, leaped into the Maelar lake. There is nothing so cooling to courage or reckless enthusiasm as cold water--if one cannot swim. The boy plunged and floundered, and, weighty with his boots and his clothing, soon sank from sight. As he came spluttering to the surface again, "Help, help, Arvid," he called despairingly; "I am drowning!" Arvid, who had swum away from his friend, thinking that he would follow after, heard the cry and caught a still louder one from the yacht: "The king, the king is sinking!" A few strokes brought him near to the over-confident diver, and clutching him by his shirt collar, he kept the lad's head above water until, after a long and laborious swim, he brought his kingly burden safe to land--for the fair-haired and reckless young knight of the nozzle was none other than His Gracious Majesty, Charles the Twelfth of Sweden. "Truly it is one thing to be brave and another to be skilful," said the king, as he stood soaked and dripping on the shore. "But for you, friend Arvid, I had almost gone." "You are very wet, sire, and may take cold," said Arvid, "let us hasten at once to yonder house for warmth and dry clothes." "Not so, Arvid; I do not fear the water--on land," said the king. "I am no such milksop as to need to dry off before a kitchen fire. See, this is the better way;" and catching up a stout hazel-stick, he bade Arvid stand on his guard. Nothing loth, Arvid Horn accepted the kingly challenge, and picking up a similar hazel-stick, he rapped King Charles' weapon smartly, and the two boys went at each other "hammer and tongs" in a lively bout at "single-stick."