oaching, and the declamation ceased. Malcolm MacLeod himself came
forward on the landing to greet the newcomers. He was a huge man of
about fifty, tall and well proportioned, with an honest but masterful
face, all in all a magnificent specimen of the race, destined by
nature to be a leader of men. He received his visitors with dignified
courtesy.

"I am James MacDonald," explained that young man by way of
introduction, "son of the Laird of Sleat. We heard you had built a
boat for the king, and so have come to see it. This is James Stuart, a
friend of mine from the Lowlands, and I have brought him with me that
he may learn what boat-building really is."

"You are very welcome," said MacLeod, "and just in time, for they are
taking her round the headland to Dunvegan to-morrow morning. Aye,
she's a bonnie boat, if I do say it myself, for no one knows her and
what she'll do better than I."

"The king should be proud of her," said MacDonald.

MacLeod tossed his shaggy head and replied with a sneer,--

"It's little the king knows about boats. He should be playing with a
shallop in a tub of water, instead of meddling with men's affairs.
Allaster Crottach is our king, and if he graciously pleases to tickle
the lad in Stirling by saying he owns the boat, Allaster himself will
have the using of her. I would not spike a plank for the king, but I'd
build a fleet for Allaster if he wanted it. Has your friend the
Gaelic? If he has, he may tell the king what I say, when he goes back
to the Lowlands."

"No, he has no Gaelic, Malcolm, but I'll put into the English whatever
you like to say."

And so he gave to the king a free rendition of MacLeod's remarks,
toning them down a little, but James was shrewd enough to suspect from
the manner of the man of Skye, that he held his nominal monarch in
slight esteem.

Malcolm MacLeod took the strangers to his own house, which was the
best in the village. Almost the entire population of the port had been
working on the king's boat, and now that it was finished and launched,
the place had earned a holiday. Malcolm was delighted to have visitors
who could bear witness to the skill of his designing, appreciate the
genius of the poets and listen to the skreigh of the piping. The
strangers were most hospitably entertained and entered thoroughly into
the spirit of the festivities. The morning after their arrival they
cheered as lustily as the others when the twenty-six oars of the
king's barge