, however, seemed to act like the breaking up of the
supper party, and the guests rose and left the table, dispersing
quickly to look after bag or baggage or some last duty, till only
Mrs. Schuyler, Lord Howe, Fritz, and Lieutenant Campbell were left
in the supper room.

It was then that young Alexander looked round and said, "It was the
name you spoke which affected my father so strangely--the fatal
name of Ticonderoga!"

"Fatal! how fatal?" asked Lord Howe quickly.

"You have not heard the strange story, then?"

"No; what story?"

"It concerns my father; it is the cause of his melancholy. When you
have heard it you will not perhaps wonder, though to you the
incident may seem incredible."

"I have learned that there are many things in this world which are
wonderful and mysterious, yet which it is folly to disbelieve,"
answered Howe. "Let us hear your story, Campbell. I would not have
spoken words to hurt your father could I have known."

"I am sure you would not; but hear the tale, and you will know why
that name sounds in his ears like a death knell.

"Long years ago it must have been when I was but a little child--my
father was sitting alone over the fire in our home at Inverawe; a
wild, strange place that I love as I love no other spot on earth.
He was in the great hall, and, suddenly there came a knocking at
the door, loud and imperative. He opened, and there stood a man
without, wild and dishevelled, who told how he had slain a man in a
fray, and was flying from his pursuers.

"'Give me help and shelter!' he implored; and my father drew him in
and closed the door, and promised to hide him. 'Swear on your dirk
not to give me up!' he implored; and my father swore, though with
him his word was ever his bond. He hid the fugitive in a secret
place, and hardly had he done so before there was another loud
knocking at the door.

"This time it was the pursuers, hot on the track of the murderer.
'He has slain your cousin Donald,' they told him. 'He cannot be far
away. We are hunting for him. Can you help us?' My father was in a
great strait; but he remembered his oath, and though he sent out
servants to help in the search, he would not give up to justice the
man who had trusted him."

"And he was right," said Lord Howe quickly; "I honour and respect
him for that."

"It may be so, yet it is against the traditions of our house and
race," answered Alexander gravely; "and that night my father woke
suddenly fro