which spoke. But presently the voice out of the unseen came again:
"And I hate you, Sholto MacKim. For we have had to keep in our chamber
this livelong day, because of the two men you have placed over us, as
if we had been prisoners in Black Archibald.[1] This very day I am
going to ask my brother to hang Black Andro and John his brother on
the dule tree of Carlinwark."

[Footnote 1: The pet name of the deepest dungeon of Castle Thrieve,
yet extant and plain to be seen by all.]

"Yes, indeed, and most properly," cried another voice, which made his
very heart flutter, "and set his new captain of the guard a-dangle in
the midst, decked out from head to foot in peacocks' feathers."

Sholto was very angry, for like a boy he took not chaffing lightly,
and had neither the harshness of hide which can endure the rasping of
a woman's tongue, nor the quickness of speech to give her the counter
retort.

So he cast the reins of his horse to a stable varlet and stamped
indoors, carrying his master's helmet to the armoury. Then still
without speech to any he brushed hastily up the stairs towards the
upper floor, which he had set Andro the Penman and his brother to
guard.

At the turning of the staircase David Douglas, the Earl's brother,
stopped him. Sholto moved in salute and would have passed by.

But David detained him with an impetuous hand.