(She had there saved his life,
though Kenric knew it not.) It was she who had told him that the great
pirate Rudri was his own evil uncle Roderic. He was accordingly much
concerned for her safety, and much troubled in his fear of what had
happened to her.
Suddenly, in the midst of his musing, someone passed him like a rush of
wind. In the dim evening light he saw Ailsa Redmain.
"Ailsa!" he cried, "where go you? Why do you thus come out here where
you know full well that none but men may come?"
"My lord," said she, "it is little Ronald Campbell that I seek, and his
sister Rachel. We cannot find them, and they have not been seen by
anyone since evensong. Methinks they must have crept under the gate and
so wandered into the grove."
"Are there no men who could seek the children as well as you? Go back,
Ailsa, and let me seek."
But as he spoke, he heard the sound of children's laughter from among
the birch trees, and, believing that Ailsa was turning back, he ran
forward towards the woods.
Now little Ronald Campbell was the same who had picked up Earl Kenric's
gauntlet on the day of his throning on the Great Plain.
Scarcely had Kenric entered the grove when the laughter he had heard was
changed into a scream of terror. Little Ronald, dragging his sister by
the hand, came running towards him, pursued by a score of savage
Norsemen.
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