like a man and are afraid of the honest pint stoup. But at the
heart's heart ye are aye a Douglas--and though the silly gaping
commons like ye not so well as they like me, ye are the best o' us,
for all that."

So it came to pass that within the space of half an hour the Avondale
Douglases had sent men to the four airts, young Hugh Douglas himself
riding west, while James stirred the folk of Avondale and Strathavon,
and in all the courtyards and streets of the little feudal bourg there
began the hum and buzz of the war assembly.

Lord William went with Sholto to see staunch Darnaway duly stabled,
and to approve the horse which was to bear the messenger to the south
without halt, now that his mission was accomplished in the west. When
they came out Sholto's riding harness had been transferred to a noble
grey steed large enough to carry even the burly James, let alone the
slim captain of the archer guard of Thrieve.

In the court, ranked and ready, bridle to bridle were ranged the
knights and squires in waiting about the Castle of Avondale, while out
on a level green spot on the edge of the moor gathered the denser
array of the townfolk with spears and partisans.

In an hour the Avondale Douglases were ready to ride to the assistance
of their cousins. Alas, that Earl William would take no advice, for
had these and others gone in with him to the fatal town, there would
have been no Black Bull's Head on the Chancellor's dinner table in the
banqueting-hall of Edinburgh Castle.

CHAPTER XXXVII

A STRANGE MEETING

It was approaching the evening of the third day after riding forth
upon his mission when Sholto, sleepless yet quite unconscious of
weariness, approached the loch of Carlinwark and the cottage of Brawny
Kim. West and south he had raised the Douglas country as it had never
been raised before. And now behind him every armiger and squire, every
spearman and light-foot archer, was hasting Edinburgh-ward, eager to
be first to succour the young and headstrong chief of his great house.

Sholto had ridden and cried the slogan as was his duty, without
allowing his mind to dwell over much upon whether all might not arrive
too late. And ever as he rode out of village or across the desolate
moors from castle to fortified farmhouse, it seemed that not he but
some other was upon this quest.

Something sterner and harder stirred in his breast. Light-hearted
Sholto MacKim, the careless lad of the jousting day, th