The Thirsty Sword

aside. While the earl and his steward were thus engaged, a tall seneschal with his serving men came into the hall to clear away the remains of the banquet; and as the old minstrel left his

made them strong. They wore their rough hunting clothes -- loose vests of leather, homespun kilts, and untanned buskin

ir -- "you have, you say, been in far-off Iceland -- tell me, is it true tha

le, "for I have myself seen such mountains. Higher than Goatf

claimed Alpin. "I wonder much i

that we have just risen from," added Roderi

dislodge the piece of meat from betwixt his teeth, picked up a twig of pine wood from the hearth, and took from the table the

Once when I was ship-broken on their coasts naught could my shipmates find to eat but reasty butter. Disliking that alone, we took our ship's cabl

"that will serve. 'Tis strange, is it not,

nt, he laid the long knife careles

slips of wood nine ells long, and he will so shape the wood that when the t

in the air, as a witch on he

struments and a snowy ground, master Redmain, you might be back at your cas

, for now I see my father is read

oy," said the

father and Alpin,

nt their oil, and their flames had died out

ler hall, Roderic? I have ordered Duncan

Roderic, exchanging glances with Erland the

ure, both being tall and broad; but Hamish was gentler, and his every movement showed that he was accustomed to the company of those who deemed a courtly bearing of more account than mere bodily

n his feet, "you have, as I have heard, won your

ccused of disloyalty. I am ever at my sovereig

to your own great disadvantage?" said Roderic,

done in dutiful service of my country an

ly, and his laugh was ec

urney such as you have newly undertaken, my brother. Think not that we have no eyes nor ears in the outer isles, Earl Hamish; for it is

only lord in all the isles who remains true to his oaths of fealty? And are they all as y

and the Old, "who pays not homage to our rig

. "Nor do I know by what right Hakon claims sove

nder his dark brows, "that Harald Fairhair sett

s, my lord of Colonsay, that my own ancestor the great king Somerled (God rest him!) did at least wrest the isles of Bute, Arran, and Gigha from the powe

lowing his glance, saw the knife upon the shelf and smiled. From the halls below, where the guards and servi

of Scots, like his father before him, has made of you a wi

that all the lamps save one had burned out their feeble lights. "I went to Norway, bearing l

England!" excl

ish, as he pressed down the burning logs with his foot. "And I do assure you, my l

you for your trouble as letter bearer?"

nd cattle, I would guess,

, rather," chimed

"methinks it had been your part to have sent me word, that I might also have been of that journey. It had been but reason that

e hall was now in darkness, saving only for the feeble light of the fire, and the moonbeams that slanted in

and stroked his silvery beard. Sweyn the Silent echoed the fatal

sh, "I must first have wasted much precious time in suing with K

off the shelf. And then, springing forward and raising his right hand above his head, he plu

ith the name of his loved wife upon his lips,

tisfaction in their dark looks. But there was fear, too, in Roderic's face, for he was craven of heart

n's song of triumph reached t