In a few moments he was again on the surface, swimming round, and preparing to dive again, feeling that he had come too late, and that in the darkness it was impossible to render aid, when, within a yard of where he was swimming, and seen but for an instant, the fingers and a portion of a clutching hand were visible above the surface, and ere they could sink far, Norton had grasped them in his hand. The next minute he had avoided a dangerous embrace, and was striking out for the nearest point, the slippery piles of the bridge, where, if he could swim so far with his burden, he could, perhaps, hold up the drowning man till assistance came. It was a hard task, but Norton was a bold and strong swimmer, and before long he was grasping at the slimy woodwork, to slip back again and again; but, at last, he managed to get one arm over a cross-piece, and his legs twined round an upright, while with his disengaged arm he did all that he could under the circumstances--held the heads of the men above water. To his great joy he now heard voices, and saw a light moving about in the grounds, when, shouting loudly, he saw a hurried movement of the light, and two or three more cries brought the seekers in the right direction. "Quick, men--quick!" he cried, as some one ran up, and held down the light, while others clustered round on the bank. "Fetch the boat up," cried Sir Murray; and his voice sent a thrill through Norton's frame, as he felt that he would have to face him. But he was too much exhausted by his exertions to think much of the threatened encounter. He knew he could hold out but a few minutes longer, and he once more called to them to hasten. "Who is it? What have you got there?" cried the man with the light. "Two drowning men," was the hoarse reply; "and I can hold on but a few minutes longer." But now came the plash plash of oars, and in a very short time the boat was by the bridge--a small pleasure-boat, into which, with great difficulty, the two men, still tightly locked together, were dragged. "We can't take you this time very well," said one of the grooms, who was in the boat. "Yes--yes," said another, "we must manage him somehow." "I can wait till you return," said Norton quietly, for, relieved of his burden, he was able to stretch first one, and then another, cramped limb, and besides, now that he had a little time for thought, the peculiarity of his position struck him. From the scattered words let fall by the servants, he had learned that an attempt had been made to rob the Castle, and that one, if not both the men he had rescued must be connected with the attempt. But, while setting aside as absurd the idea that he could in any way be connected with the matter, he was troubled about the light in which Sir Murray's distempered mind would view his presence in the park at such an hour, and he watched, with no little anxiety, the putting off of the boat.