some courage to face your future father-in-law. What
did the old curmudgeon say?"

"He gave little indication of pleasure or the reverse. He offered me
my liberty, now that I had pledged it in another direction, but he
refused to release you, so I declined to accept his clemency."

"Then my proposed rescue must await the marriage ceremony?"

"Not so. I have a more immediate and practical remedy. You have not
forgotten the twenty-six oared barge which the MacLeod was to keep for
the king, and which Malcolm MacLeod built for him."

"It is not very likely, when I issued a proclamation commending
Malcolm as the greatest shipbuilder in the world."

"Well, Malcolm has arrived at Dunvegan to receive into his own hands
once more that same proclamation. I asked him, in MacLeod's presence,
if the fleet still lingered in Torridon Bay, and he answered that it
did. MacLeod pricked up his ears at this, and thinking he was to get
some information, now that I proposed myself as a member of his
family, inquired if I knew why it remained so long. I said I had a
suspicion of the cause. If Malcolm had not replied to the king's
proclamation it was natural that the fleet would wait until he did.
Old Alexander and Malcolm seemed surprised that a response was
expected, Malcolm being but a simple yeoman. However, we wrote out a
courteous reply to the king, in Gaelic, and Malcolm is to send it to
the fleet as soon as he returns to the northern coast."

"I don't see how that is to help us," demurred his majesty.

"Here is my proposal. If you will now write out an order to the
admiral commanding the fleet to appear before Dunvegan Castle, I will
ride part of the way home with Malcolm, and suggest to him at parting,
that perhaps none of the officers of the fleet understand Gaelic, or
at least that none can read it, so I will fasten your letter to the
other document, and tell Malcolm it is a translation of his Gaelic
effusion. Neither Malcolm nor any of his friends at the port can read
English, and as he is a simple minded man it is not likely that he
will return and allow the laird a perusal. So in that way we may get
word to the fleet. Even if the letter is discovered, you will have
kept your word, for you promised only not to communicate with
Stirling."

The king pronounced the device a feasible one, and set himself at once
to the writing of the letter.

MacDonald succeeded in getting the unsuspicious Malcolm to take charge
of the supp