antiquities. However, the lads found no difficulty. They swarmed
up the face of the crags like so many squirrels, and found themselves
on a grassy plateau which had once formed the outer courtyard of the
keep. Around this plateau were fragments of what in former days had
been a massive wall, but most of the crumbling masonry was hidden under
ivy and weeds. In front of them, again, rose the great tower with its
arched and gloomy entrance, and its one or two small windows, in the
clefts of which bunches of wallflower were growing. The only sign of
life about the old castle or the uninhabited island was given by two or
three jackdaws that wheeled about overhead, and cawed harshly in
resentment of this intrusion.

The great chieftain, Robert of the Red Hand, having now assembled his
kinsmen and allies in the ancient halls of Eilean-na-Rona, proceeded to
speak as follows.

'Nicol, my man, ye have been tried and convicted.'

'I ken that,' was Nicol's philosophical reply.

'Ye had no business to make fast the sheet of the lug-sail; ye might
have drooned the lot of us.'

Nicol nodded. He had sinned, and was prepared to suffer.

'Have ye ought to say against your being lowered into the dungeon?'

'I have not. Do you think I'm feared?' said Nicol scornfully.

'Ye will not pay the penny?'

'Deil a penny will I pay!'

'Nicol,' said his cousin Neil, with some touch of compassion--for
indeed he knew that the dungeon was a gruesome place--'Nicol, maybe you
have not got a penny?'

'Well, I have not,' said Nicol.

'Will I lend ye one?'

'What would be the use of that?' said Nicol; 'I would have to pay it
back. Do you think I'm feared? I tell you I am not feared.'

So there was nothing for it but to get the rope and pass it under
Nicol's arms, fastening it securely at his back. Thus bound, the
culprit was marched through the archway of the old tower into an
apartment that was but feebly lit by the reflected glare coming from
without. The other boys, as well as Nicol, walked very carefully over
the dank-smelling earth, until they came to what seemed to be a large
hole dug out of the ground, and black as midnight. This was the
dungeon into which Nicol was to be lowered, that he might expiate his
offence before the high revels began.

[1] _Anglice_, seized hold of the weasel.

CHAPTER II.

THE LAST OF THE GAMES.

But before proceeding to relate how the captive clansman was lowered
into the dung