"What brings you back to the castle?" he cried; "and wherefore do you
call me at this late hour?"
"It is that our father has been entertaining enemies unawares," said
Kenric. "Entering the hall but a few moments ago I found him lying dead
upon the hearth with a cruel knife in his heart."
Alpin gave a piercing cry of sudden grief and sprang up from his bed.
"No, no, it cannot be!" he exclaimed, recovering himself as he threw on
some clothing. "You have made some strange mistake. These friends could
not have harmed our father. They were not armed. And what could our
uncle Roderic gain by such treachery?"
Kenric drew his brother out into one of the dark passages, not observing
that their mother's chamber door had opened and that the Lady Adela,
roused from her slumber by Alpin's cry of grief, had taken the alarm and
was preparing to follow.
"Alas, he has but too much to gain," said Kenric. "Had he been left to
carry out his base plot to the end, you and I, Alpin, must surely have
fallen as our father has fallen -- victims to Earl Roderic's ambition to
make himself lord over Bute."
"If this be so," returned Alpin, raising his voice in wrath, "then with
my own hands will I take a deadly vengeance. I swear it now, Kenric --
by our holy faith I swear that if Roderic of Gigha has indeed slain our
father, then Roderic shall die by my hand!"
"Will such vengeance give back the life that has been taken?" asked
Kenric solemnly.
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