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“The watch here has always been a double one since I can remember,” put in auld Geordie.

“To my mind, one man ought to be able to watch as well as two, for the matter of that. And so, Tam, you mean you would be more comfortable with a comrade on the east terrace to-night. Perhaps Sir David would oblige you,” he added, with a laugh.

The soldier flushed angrily.

“Ay, you may say that,” he muttered, in an undertone; “it’s more than likely Sir David will be walking to-night.”

The boy caught these last words, and glanced quickly at the speaker. The meaning of these mysterious utterances suddenly flashed upon him. These men, then mistook him, their chief, their captain, for a coward!

A crimson flush suffused his face, a flush of shame and anger, as he sprang to his feet.

At that instant, and before he could utter a word, a bugle sounded at the gate, and there entered the hall a soldier whose appearance bore every mark of desperate haste.

“Singleton,” he cried, as he entered, “the king’s friends are up! Glencairn musters his men at daybreak at Scotsboro’, and expects the thirty men of the Singletons promised him, there and then!”

Here was a piece of news! The long-wished-for summons had come at last, and the heart of each Singleton present beat high at the prospect of battle! And yet in the midst of their elation a serious difficulty presented itself.

“Thirty men!” said Geordie, looking round him. “Why there are but thirty-one men here, counting the laird. Some must stay.”

But the young laird, who had noticed the same thing, cried out promptly to the messenger–

“Tell your general he shall have his thirty men before dawn,” and with that the soldier withdrew.

The joy of the Singletons now gave place to something like panic, as they comprehended what the rash pledge of their young chief really meant. It meant that thirty of them must go, and one must stay; and what could one man do to defend a castle like Singleton Towers? The elder soldiers were specially concerned.

“Call him back, Singleton,” said Geordie. “You cannot leave this place defenceless! Think of the peril! Ten men must stay, at the least.”

“Who says `must’ to me?” cried the young chief, impatiently. “Are the Singletons to be word-breakers as well as highwaymen? Thirty men shall go. Have we not promised?”

“But who will stay?” asked some one.

“Ah, that’s it,” cried another. “Who is to stay?”

Silence ensued on the question, and then–

“I will stay,” quietly replied Singleton.

“You! The laird!” shouted every one, in amazement. “That can never be!”

“Why not?” inquired the youth. “Who is chief here, you or I?”

“But who is to lead us in battle?”

“Ah,” said Singleton, “that is my duty, I know, but it is equally my duty to stay here!”

“But it is certain peril, and you could do no good. Let one of us stay. Let me stay with you,” said Geordie.

“No, brave Geordie, you must go. It must never be said the Singletons broke their word, even to save their castle. Take the thirty men to Glencairn. If he permits ten to return, well and good. You will find me here.”

“But your place is at our head,” said the men.

“And there I will be to-morrow. To-night I watch here; ay, and on the east terrace with Sir David, Tam,” he added, with a smile. “But come; to horse there! You lose time. Bring out the guns! On with your belts, men! Be brisk now! Take every man some bread and meat from the table!”

And with these words the martial fire of the father blazed out in the son, so that his men wondered more than ever how they could have suspected him of faint-heartedness.

“Are you all equipped and mounted? Lower the drawbridge there! Open the gate! Forward, men! and `Singleton for the king!'”