"Well, Hamish," began Roderic, moving uneasily on his feet, "you have,
as I have heard, won your way into the good graces of our lord the King?"
"I trust," said Hamish, "that I may never be accused of disloyalty. I am
ever at my sovereign's service in whatsoever he commands me to do."
"What, even though the doing of that service be to your own great
disadvantage?" said Roderic, looking aside at Earl Sweyn and smiling grimly.
"Naught can be to my disadvantage that is done in dutiful service of my
country and King," answered the lord of Bute proudly.
Roderic laughed scornfully, and his laugh was echoed by Sweyn and Erland.
"There may be two thoughts as to that," returned Roderic. "As for
myself, I'd snap my fingers in the King's face ere I would go on a
journey such as you have newly undertaken, my brother. Think not that we
have no eyes nor ears in the outer isles, Earl Hamish; for it is known
in every castle between Cape Wrath and the Mull of Kintyre that you have
but now returned from a mission to King Hakon of Norway."
"And what though it were yet more widely known?" said Hamish in
surprise. "Am I, then, the only lord in all the isles who remains true
to his oaths of fealty? And are they all as you are, Roderic, who have
failed these many years to pay due tribute to the King of Scots?"
"You are the only one among us," croaked Erland the Old, "who pays not
homage to our rightful lord and sovereign the good King Hakon.
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