"Insolent varlet!" growled Roderic within the room.
"Nay, calm yourself, good Roderic," said the voice of Erland the Old;
"we had better have tarried till daylight. It may be that they have
already discovered what you have done. Truly you were an arrant
simpleton to leave the weapon in your brother's breast. 'Twould have
served our further purpose well."
Kenric heard these last words, and though they were spoken in the
Danish, yet full well did he understand that the further purpose of Earl
Roderic was indeed the slaying of the Lady Adela and Alpin.
Assured that the three miscreants were unarmed, he drew Duncan aside and
whispered his commands, which were that four of the guards should follow
him into the room and make prisoners of the three island kings.
Thereupon Duncan went back to the door and forced it open, and Kenric,
with buckler on arm and sword in hand, marched in, and standing firmly
upright faced the three men defiantly.
"Which man of you is Earl Roderic of Gigha?" said he.
CHAPTER VI. ALPIN'S VOW OF VENGEANCE.
Erland the Old, with an empty drinking horn in his bony hand, sat by the
hearth looking vacantly into the dead embers of the fire. Sweyn the
Silent stood beside him with his thumbs stuck in his leathern girdle;
while Roderic of Gigha sat upon the table facing the door and swinging
his legs to and fro.
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