From time
to time Rupert dived so as to look through the loophole, and at
last was rewarded by seeing a faint dull light. Day was beginning;
and Rupert had no doubt that with early morning the sluices would
be opened, and the moat entirely cleared of water.
He had, when talking with his gaoler one day, asked him how they
got rid of the water in the dungeon after a flood, and the man said
that there were pipes from the floor of each dungeon into the moat.
At ordinary times these pipes were closed by wooden plugs, as the
water outside was far above the floor; but that after a flood the
water was entirely let out of the moat, and the plugs removed from
the pipes, which thus emptied the dungeons.
From the way in which the fellow described the various
arrangements, Rupert had little doubt that the sluice gates were at
times purposely left closed, in order to clear off troublesome
prisoners who might otherwise have remained a care and expense to
the state for years to come.
Long as the night had seemed, it seemed even longer before Rupert
felt that the water was sinking. He knew that after the upper
sluice had opened the fosse might take some time to fall to the
level of the water inside the dungeon, and that until it did the
water inside would remain stationary.
He passed the hours by changing his position as much as possible;
sometimes he swam round and round, at other times he trod water,
then he would float quietly, then cling to the bar of the loophole.
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