But at last he freed himself and forced her back. Then with
fierce anger he caught her up in his arms and raised her from her feet,
and carried her away.
Thereupon Aasta gave forth a loud and piercing cry that sounded far away
in the keen winter air.
That cry was heard at the farther side of Loch Ascog, where, in the
dingle of Lochly, Allan Redmain was walking northward towards Rothesay.
Allan thought at first that it was the cry of some imprisoned spirit in
the mere; but again he heard it, and no longer doubted that it was a
woman's voice calling for help. He ran back to the southern point of the
lake, and searched in the growing darkness for a sign that might tell
him what had happened. Nothing could he see but the bare bleak land with
its patches of frozen snow, the dark trees waving in the wind, and the
still blue surface of the mere where the frost was swiftly congealing
the water into transparent ice. And then he thought that his ears had
deceived him.
He went onward to Rothesay over the ever-hardening land. The frost bit
sharply. Every stream of water shrank into itself in firm clear ice and
grew silent. Allan was full-blooded in his strong manhood, but when he
reached the castle gates his fingers, toes, and ears were numb with the
intense cold.
Before the blazing fire in the great hall he found Kenric with the Lady
Adela and his own sister Ailsa.
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