“Hang your skeleton keys,” said Jack, in disgust. “Don’t I know all about the house? I ought to do, for I’ve been in it often enough; no skeleton keys in the world would open those doors, they are doubly bolted inside, and cased with iron. Give me the rope-ladder.” With great dexterity, Captain Jack threw one end of the rope-ladder up into the air, and the hooks at the end caught in the iron railings of the balcony. “Silence!” said Captain Jack, and after trying its strength, he began to ascend. * * * * * But for a moment let us see what was going on inside the house. Ellen Harmer was confined therein, and was supposed to be strictly watched both night and day by the deaf and dumb eunuch—the Nubian slave. The fame of her great beauty had reached the ears of the king; but instead of presenting her to majesty, Colonel Blood had made up his mind to keep her for himself, after having, as he termed it, “tamed her” into submission. But this proved a much harder task than the colonel had ever imagined. Ellen Harmer would _not_ “be tamed.” The colonel had offered her wealth and luxury; but she received all his unmanly proposals with scorn. “I can afford to wait,” thought the hard-hearted colonel. “I can afford to wait, a month or two of confinement and pampering will soon bring down her proud spirit.” In hopes of keeping her away from the king, he had removed her first from one place to another, until at last he imagined that his royal master had given her up for lost. This, Colonel Blood fondly hoped _was_ the case. But he was very much mistaken. The king had his spies about as well as the cunning colonel; but it was not until this very day that he had actually discovered the beautiful Ellen’s hiding-place. When he heard of it he was in a terrible passion, and for a moment vowed all manner of things against Blood. When he heard, however, that the colonel had made a sudden journey to Darlington, he made up his mind to visit Blood’s mansion alone, and take her away by force. He had employed a truculent courtier to be on the spot about three or four in the morning. “By which time,” said the king, “I shall have made an impression on the rustic beauty. If she will not consent to be my mistress, why, then, I will give the signal, Rochfort, and be you ready with a guard and a barge to bear her away by force; but let all things be done in secret so that not a syllable may be known to Blood on his return, for I want to make a fool of him after all his deception with me.” These were the instructions given to Rochfort, and at the moment that Captain Jack was quietly preparing his rope-ladder outside, the king was already secreted in the mansion. Ellen Harmer, in her sumptuous chamber, was reclining on a sofa. She could not sleep, and the splendid bed with its satin hangings was uncreased.