ng for her
dirk, as she recognized the man she had set out to slay.

"Ay, Roderic it is," said he smiling grimly. "And methinks, fair damsel,
that you are the very same who so cunningly escaped from my ship over at
Arrochar -- the same also who fought so bravely against me at Largs. By
the saints, my pretty one, but you are a most courageous maiden; much do
I admire you, and fain would I know you better.

"Nay, be not afraid of me," he added as he saw her draw back from him,
"I will not hurt you.

"What wicked schemes, my lord, have brought you yet again to Bute?"
asked Aasta, making pretence to be very calm, and thinking that by
seeming to yield to his humour she might be the better able presently to
use her dirk.

"If you must know," said he as he stepped aside to the leeward of a
great rock, "I come hither to see the old witch Elspeth Blackfell, to
reproach her for her false prophecy. Where lives the old hag these
wintry days?"

"In the cave of Ascog, if you know that place," said Aasta, promptly
deciding how she might entrap him there, and knowing full well that the
wolf Lufa would be a sufficient protection for Elspeth.

"I know it well," said Roderic, "and there will I go. And now, how fares
the young lord of Bute since he has lost his castles and lands?"

"My lord Kenric's castles and lands are in no wise lost to him," said
Aasta more boldly.

"How so? Not lost?" cried Roderic in surprise. "Where, then, is Thorolf
Sigurdson, whom I left as warden over my isle of Bute?"

"Thorolf Sigurdson, Heaven bless his honest heart! has gone home these
many weeks past to Benbecula, and taken his cowardly Norsemen with him."

"The traitor!" gasped Roderic. "And is the young Kenric again in
possession of my castle of Rothesay?"

"The castle of Rothesay was never yours, Earl Roderic, and never shall
be," returned Aasta firmly. "His Majesty of Scots hath given us full
protection, and for you to seek to remove Earl Kenric from his rightful
lordship were vain. If you value your life, my lord, go not near to
Rothesay."

"Your warnings are useless, bold maiden," said Roderic with a sneer. "To
Rothesay I will surely go, and Kenric, were he the strongest man in all
the isles, shall not prevent me from taking my own. I have sworn to
bring that whelp to his death, and by St. Olaf he shall die this very
night!"

Aasta drew nearer until she stood close enough to touch him. The light
of the moon shone upon her beautiful fac