that he would be speedily overcome. The one band was led by Sir Oscar
Redmain and his son, the other by Duncan Graham and Kenric.

Roderic ran onward to the water's edge, and ere the first stone that was
thrown could reach him he had plunged into Loch Fad, and as he swam
outward stones and clods of turf fell in showers about his head. A stone
thrown by Kenric struck him on the helmet. He sank deep down, and all
believed that the water would be his death. But, like the diver bird of
his native seas, he went under but to appear again many yards away
beyond the reach of any weapon but the arrow, and of arrows there were
none in all that company.

Now Loch Fad, which is the largest of the lakes of Bute, is full two
miles long and but four furlongs wide, and it was useless for any to
think of meeting the fugitive earl on the farther shore. So at the
bidding of Sir Oscar Redmain the men all gave up the chase and turned
back to where the dead body of Lord Alpin lay prone upon the turf, and
thence they bore him to the castle of Rothesay.


CHAPTER X. AASTA'S CURSE.

Roderic of Gigha, for all that he had been absent from Bute for a score
of years, had not forgotten the old landmarks that had been familiar to
him in boyhood. After swimming across Loch Fad he found himself among
the tall pine trees of the forest of Barone. Wet and weary after his
escape from his pursuers, and smarting sorely of his many wounds, he
passed through the forest glades and emerged at the point where, on the
evening before, Kenric had entered.