lready be seen like blue
mists upon the far-off sea line.

"Now, my young valiant," said Sir Piers to Harald the hostage, who sat
upon the after deck looking wistfully over the tumbling waters, "know
you the colour of your native hills?"

"Well indeed do I know that," said the lad, "and by your course I now
judge that you are indeed taking me home, for which I am most truly
thankful. My sojourn in your country has been little to my taste. Well
will it be for the lord of Bute, ay, and for his Majesty of Scots also,
if I take not a bitter revenge for all that I have suffered at their
hands. But, prithee, turn your ship's head yet more to the southward to
catch the current of Loch Andail, and so gain a few minutes' time. St.
Olaf, how my heart beats at sight of those hills! Ah, how the moments
lag! speed on, speed on!"

"Patience, patience, Harald, you are not landed yet," said the knight.
"And should your good father not choose to agree to our terms, then back
you go to Scotland as speedily as we came."

"Let me but see my father and he will agree," said Harald.

"Let your father agree and he will see you," returned Sir Piers.

"Look you," said the lad with flashing eyes, "if you put me not upon the
shores of Islay in two hours' time, then by the soul of St. Olaf I will
slay every man in your ship. As to the lord of Bute, I will haul him up
by a rope's end to your masthead!"

"So ho!" said Kenric, "methinks, Sir Piers, that this little dog might
now have a chain about his pretty neck. What say you?"

Sir Piers then ordered one of his men to take the lad below and keep
strict guard over him.

Late that afternoon the galley entered the beautiful Loch Andail and
sailed in between ranges of fertile hills, whose lower slopes were gold
with ripening oats and waving barley fields. Islay was at that time one
of the most wealthy and prosperous of the Western Isles, thickly
populated, and famous over all Scotland for the rich produce of its
looms and the beauty of its native pottery wares. It was important to
Alexander that he should win over the complete and undivided adherence
of the powerful ruler of so wealthy a country, and Sir Piers de Currie
well understood the gravity of his mission.

The anchor was dropped in the middle of the loch where it widens above
Bowmore. Sir Piers and Kenric, attended by six armed men, were taken
ashore. A tall husbandman with a long golden beard and sea-blue eyes
stood upon the rocks w