Two or three narrow slits in
the wall allowed light and air to enter. Malcolm saw that escape
at night, after he had once been shut in, was impossible, and that
in the daytime he could not pass out by the gate; for even if by
a sudden surprise he overpowered the sentry there, he would be met
at the bottom of the path by the two men who were always stationed
as guards to the horses, and to give notice of the approach of
strangers.
The only chance of escape, therefore, was by lowering himself from
one of the windows behind, down the steep rock. To do this a rope
of some seventy feet long was necessary, and after a careful search
through the ruins he failed to discover even the shortest piece of
rope.
That afternoon some of the band on their return from foraging drove
in half a dozen cattle, and one of these was with much difficulty
compelled to climb up the path to the castle, and was slaughtered
in the yard.
"There, Scot, are victuals for the next week; cut it up, and throw
the head and offal down the rock behind."
As Malcolm commenced his unpleasant task a thought suddenly struck
him, and he laboured away cheerfully and hopefully. After cutting
up the animal into quarters he threw the head, the lower joints
of the legs, and the offal, from the window. The hide he carried,
with the four quarters, into his kitchen, and there concealed it
under the pile of straw which served for his bed.
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