It was little more than a step to the clear, cool night from the lobby of Drimdoran House but every step in life has its own particular fate attending it. Aeneas Macmaster, though he could not guess it, was fairly landed upon the great adventure of his life.
Aeneas and Ninian have a skirmish with Borisdale. Aeneas learns that there are conflicting stories of how his father died, and he is determined to find out the truth.
After a dangerous journey Aeneas and Ninian reach Inverness and meet the sinister Lord Lovat, suspected of being a secret revolutionary. They leave his castle knowing they are hunted men.
Strangers attack the heroes by night in their Inverness lodgings. Aeneas is kidnapped and taken aboard a ship. But Ninian contrives his escape and they are reunited with Janet. On their return to Inverary Ninian confronts Sandy Duncanson with unwelcome news.
Aeneas, wrongfully dismissed from his post as tutor at Drimdoran House, goes north to Inverness on business for his uncle, Bailie Alan. He travels in secret in the company of Ninian Campbell, the Duke of Argyll's 'beachdair' or spy. But Sandy Duncanson, the laird of Drimdoran, has mounted a pursuit.