“Please let me pass,” he panted.  “I would see the general on a matter of the utmost importance.”

The sentries laughed.

“You don’t suppose,” one of them said, “that the general is to be disturbed by every barefooted boy who wants to speak to him.  If you have aught to say, you must speak first to the lieutenant of the guard.”

“Every moment is of importance,” Mike urged.  “It is a matter of life and death.  I tell you I must see the general.”  Then at the top of his voice he began to shout, “Sir David Leslie!  Sir David Leslie!”

“Silence there, young varmint, or I will wring thy neck for thee!” exclaimed the soldier, greatly scandalized, seizing Mike and shaking him violently.  But the boy continued to shout out at the top of his voice, “Sir David Leslie!  Sir David Leslie!”

CHAPTER XXII.

Kidnaped.

Unable to silence Mike’s shouts, the scandalized guards began dragging him roughly from the spot, cuffing him as they went.  But the door of the tent opened, and General Leslie appeared.

“What means all this unseemly uproar?” he asked.

“This malapert boy, general, wished to force his way into your tent, and when we stopped him, and told him that he must apply to the lieutenant of the guard if he had aught of importance which he wished to communicate to you, he began to shout like one possessed.”

“Loose him,” the general said.  “Now, varlet, what mean you by this uproar?”

“Forgive me, sir,” Mike pleaded, “but I come on an errand which concerns the life of my master, Colonel Furness.”

“Come within,” the general said briefly, for by this time a crowd had gathered round the tent.  “Now,” he went on, “what is it you would tell me?”

“I would ask you, sir, whether an hour since you sent an order to my master that he should forthwith go on board the ship Royalist to inspect recruits and stores of arms just arrived from Holland?”

The general looked at him in astonishment.

“I sent no such order,” he said.  “No ship has arrived from Holland of that or any other name.  What story is this that you have got hold of?”

“My master received such an order, sir, for I heard him read it aloud, and he started at once with his major to carry out the order.  Knowing, sir, how great, as you are doubtless aware, is the enmity which the Earl of Argyll bears to my master, I followed him to the port, and there learned that the ship called the Royalist had not come from Holland, but is a coaster from the north.  I found, moreover, that she was but yesterday named the Royalist, and that she was before known as the Covenant, and that she is commanded by a Campbell.  Then it seemed to me that some plot had been laid to kidnap my master, and I ran straight to you to ask you whether you had really ordered him to go on board this ship.”