e honour as well as you.
Selfish man that you are, you are ever ready to win worship from me and
put me to dishonour!"

At this moment the last remaining cruse light flickered, burned blue,
flickered again, and then went out. The hall was now in darkness, saving
only for the feeble light of the fire, and the moonbeams that slanted in
through the mullioned windows and shone here and there upon some
burnished helmet or corselet upon the walls.

As Roderic of Gigha ceased speaking, Erland the Old coughed thrice and
stroked his silvery beard. Sweyn the Silent echoed the fatal sign, and
Roderic drew back, resting his right hand upon the mantel.

"Had I tarried till I had sent for you, Roderic," said Earl Hamish, "I
must first have wasted much precious time in suing with King Alexander
for his pardon for my brother who has betrayed him!"

"You lie! base slanderer! you lie!" cried Roderic in jealous fury,
snatching the knife from off the shelf. And then, springing forward and
raising his right hand above his head, he plunged the blade deep, deep
into his brother's heart. The good Earl Hamish staggered and fell.

"Treachery!" he groaned. "Adela! Adela!" and with the name of his loved
wife upon his lips, he died there upon the stone of his own hearth.

Roderic and his two companions approached the dead man, gazed upon him,
and then at each other with satisfaction in their dark looks. But there
was fear, too, in Roderic's face, for he was craven of heart. He drew
back into the shadow, where neither moonbeam nor firelight could fall
upon him and reveal him.

And all the while the henchman's song of triumph reached their ears from
the halls below.

CHAPTER V. A TERRIBLE DISCOVERY.

Kenric tarried not long in search of the ghostly figure that had
appeared before him so mysteriously in the dark forest of Barone. Whence
that figure had come and whither it had gone he could not tell. Nor did
he exercise his mind in fruitless questionings concerning her. Leaving
the rock behind him, he set off at a brisk pace through the shadows of
the trees, more timid than ever, and came out upon the high ground that
is behind Rothesay Bay.

Down by the water's brink, outlined against the moonlit waves, stood the
dark towers of Rothesay Castle. A light shone dimly in his mother's
chamber window; but the great banqueting hall wherein his father was
wont to entertain his guests was dark, and Kenric thought this passing
strange. Where w