irds which he could see were black and white, and which
flew off, uttering sharp, excited cries.

"What are those?"

"Pies."

"Pies?"

"Yes; not puddings."

"I mean magpies?"

"No; sea pies--oyster-catchers."

"Do they catch oysters?"

"Never saw one do it, but they eat the limpets like fun. Now then, sit
fast. Here's a shot."

Max sat fast and shrinkingly, for he was not accustomed to a gun being
fired close to his ears. He watched eagerly as a couple of birds flew
toward them with outstretched necks and quickly beating, sharply-pointed
wings, but they turned off as the gun was raised, and, though Kenneth
fired, there was no result.

"Waste of a shot," he said, reloading.

"What were those?"

"Sheldrakes. How shy they are, Scood!"

Max thought it was enough to make them, but he did not say so, and he
scanned the island as they sailed on, with the sensation of gliding over
the beautiful sparkling water growing each moment more fascinating as
his dread wore off. They were passing a glorious slope of shore, green
and grey and yellow, and patched with black where some mass of shaley
rock jutted out into the sea to be creamed with foam, while everywhere,
as the tide laid them bare, the rocks were glistening with the
golden-brown seaweed of different species. Blue sky, blue water, blue
mountains in the distance: the scene was lovely, and the London boy's
eyes brightened as he gazed with avidity at the ever-changing shore.

"Is that a castle?" he said, as a square ruined tower gradually came
into sight at the point of the island.

"Yes; there are lots about," said Kenneth coolly. "There's another
yonder."

He nodded in the direction of the mainland, so cut up into fiords that
on a small scale it resembled the Norwegian coast, and, on shading his
eyes, Max could see another mouldering pile of ruins similar in
structure to Dunroe, with its square mass of masonry and four rounded
towers at the corners.

"What castle is that?"

"Rannage. This one on the island is Turkree. Every chief used to have
a place of that sort, and most of 'em built their castles on rocks like
that sticking out into the sea."

Max gazed eagerly at the ruined towers, the homes of jackdaws, bats, and
owls, and he was beginning to dream about the old times when men in
armour and courtly ladies used to dwell in these sea-girt fortalices,
but his reverie was broken in upon by a sharp snapping bark from
Sneeshing, and an excl