And so, like an avalanche that gathers
added weight as it descends, the invading forces drew rearer and nearer
to their goal.
CHAPTER XXII. THE TWO SPIES.
On a certain morning in September, Aasta the Fair sat crouched at the
door of the little cot wherein she dwelt. She was grinding oats in a
small stone hand mill. Old Elspeth sat within doors spinning.
Presently Aasta raised her eyes and looked over towards the little isle
of Inch Marnock, where on the green knolls some sheep were grazing. In
the narrow channel that separates Inch Marnock from Bute she saw a tiny
coracle with a man on board. The little boat drew to the beach of St.
Ninian's Bay, where the man stepped out and began to run. Staggering in
his gait, he fell; then rose again and again fell. Aasta, leaving her
work, ran down towards the man, and when she got near him she saw that
his clothes were torn, and his limbs bleeding from many wounds. He was
lying on his back, groaning. She looked into his white face and saw that
it was the face of the man whom Earl Kenric had left in Gigha as his
steward and governor.
"What means all this, William MacAlpin?" asked Aasta, kneeling by his
side; "and wherefore come you back to Bute thus covered with bleeding
wounds?"
The man pointed westward, and with his dying breath said:
"Run you to Castle Rothesay, I beseech you; run and tell my lord Kenric
that the Norsemen with their hosts have landed on Gigha, and have
wrested the island from us.
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