n of this frowning
stronghold; yet, extensive as it was, its proprietor evidently found
it inadequate for his ambitions, as he was now building a massive
tower which added a further dignity to the structure.

The king and his companion were received at the front entrance by an
old man, whom each at once knew could not be their host, for his back
had originally been straight enough, though now slightly stooped
through age. He led them within, and up a stair direct to the
apartments reserved for them. Their aged conductor spoke no English,
so the burden of conversation fell on MacDonald. As soon as the latter
perceived that he and his friend were to be separated, the king lodged
at one end of the castle, and himself at the other, he protested
against this arrangement, demanding two adjoining rooms. The old man
replied that he was following instructions given, and if the rooms
assigned were not satisfactory, his master would doubtless change them
on the morrow.

"But, my good man," expostulated MacDonald, "we expect to be leaving
the castle to-morrow."

"In that case," replied their cicerone with a scarcely perceptible
shrug of the shoulders, "it makes but little difference for one
night." The king inquiring into the purport of the discussion, quite
agreed with the elderly guide, that the matter was of small moment.

"If our genial innkeeper intends to murder us," he said, "we shall be
quite as helpless together as separate, for he has irresistible force
at his command. If we are in a trap there is little use in snarling at
the bars. By all accounts Dunvegan is a shrewd man, and I can see no
object which he can attain by doing harm to either of us. If he had a
son who was next heir to the position I hold, I confess I might sleep
uneasily to-night; but as he must know that the king's fleet is
hovering about his coast, and that his castle would make a most
excellent target for it, as he cannot transport his house to the hills
should the ships sail up the loch, I don't see what he can gain by
maltreating two men, whom he must suspect of having some connection
with the advent of the fleet."

"Oh, I have no thought," replied MacDonald, "that the Eagle of
Dunvegan would fly so high as you suggest, but there are lowlier
perches on which he may like to fix his talons. He has long cast
covetous eyes across the Sound of Sleat to the mainland, and, whatever
he knows or suspects, he is sure of one thing, which is that he has
th