"I will make ready my best galley, then," said Kenric, "and await you in
Rothesay."

"Agreed," said the knight, "and it may be also that his Majesty will
wish you to go upon the mission that your father was soon to have
undertaken to Islay and Mull. 'Tis passing unfortunate that you are so
young, Earl Kenric, and so little experienced in the arts of diplomacy
that so marked your good father. But methinks his Majesty will be well
pleased to see you, and to know what manner of man he has now to depend
upon in his future dealings with the Norsemen. Your youth will assuredly
be no disadvantage in the eyes of one who was monarch over all Scotland
at eight years old."

"Think you, Sir Piers, that we shall at last come to a war with these
Norsemen?" asked Allan Redmain.

"Of that I have little doubt, Allan," said Sir Piers. "Methinks the time
is not far distant when the possession of the Western Isles must be
determined at the point of the sword."

This promise of coming strife was by no means unwelcome to Allan
Redmain, for those peaceful and prosperous times gave but few occasions
for the earnest exercise of the sword, though, indeed, the weapons of
the chase were in constant use, and Allan felt the young blood course
through his veins with quickened excitement at the prospect of engaging
in a pitched battle against the valiant vikings of the North.

As to Kenric, the one thing which made him somewhat less eager than
Allan was his knowledge that there was now no immediate hope of meeting
the slayer of his father in a hand-to-hand encounter. The outlawed