"Methought when we came here
that I should have the chance of driving my spear into a full half score
of the children of Bute -- that I might have served them even as the
stripling Kenric served my little ones. Saint Olaf curse him!"
"It baffles me," said the first, "to know by what means the women and
children of this isle have been spirited away. Not since we landed
yestermorn have I so much as seen a living child, nor woman neither,
saving only that old witch."
"Ay, and the fighting maid who cut me this wound across my pate," added
another. "Methinks this Kenric must surely have got wind of our
intention; but how that can be, what man can tell?"
"What then of the thing we found on the moor of Gigha, after the council
that King Hakon held?" asked Thorolf the captain. "What man would have
slain the young Harald of Islay if it were not some spy of Bute? The lad
was stabbed through the back; 'twas in no fair fight that he fell."
"True," said they all. "By St. Olaf, that is surely so!"
"Could we find out in Rudri's absence where these babes and wives of
Bute have been so cunningly hidden," said one of the men of Colonsay,
"methinks we might well pay out both Rudri and young Kenric. What say
you, my bold brothers all?"
"'Tis my belief," said another, "that the old witch who spoke to Earl
Roderic had some secret intention in turning us away from yon chapel at
the end of the island.
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