s thinking. He had a
suspicion that there might be some quirk about pounds "Scots," and was
trying to explain things clearly to himself.

"Now, we are going to the Glistering Beaches to look for the Great Auk!"
said Anna as a climax to the great announcement.

The water lappered pleasantly beneath the boat as Simeon deftly drew it
over the sea. There is hardly any pleasure like good oarsmanship. In
rowing, the human machine works more cleanly and completely than at any
other work. Before the children rose two rocky islands, with an opening
between, like a birthday cake that has been badly cut in the centre and
has had the halves moved a little way apart. This was Stack Canna.

"Do you think that there would be any chance here?" said Anna. The
splendour of the adventure was taking possession of her mind.

"Of course there would; but the best chance of all will be at the caves
of Rona Wester, for that is near the Glistering Beaches, and the birds
would be sure to go there if the people went to seek them at the
Beaches."

"Has any one been there?" asked Anna.

"Fishers have looked into them from the sea. No one has been in!" said
Simeon briefly.

The tops of the Stack of Canna were curiously white, and Simeon watched
the effect over his shoulder as he rowed.

"Look at the Stack," he said, and the eyes of his companion followed
his.

"Is it snow?" she asked.

"No; birds--thousands of them. They are nesting. Let us land and get a
boat-load to take back."

But Anna declared that it must not be so. They had come out to hunt the
Great Auk, and no meaner bird would they pursue that day.

Nevertheless, they landed, and made spectacles of themselves by groping
in the clay soil on the top of the Stack for Petrels' eggs. But they
could not dig far enough without spades to get many, and when they did
get to the nest, it was hardly worth taking for the sake of the one
white egg and the little splattering, oily inmate.

Yet on the wild sea-cinctured Stack, and in that young fresh morning,
the children tasted the joy of life; and only the fascinating vision of
the unknown habitant of the Glistering Beaches had power to wile them
away.

But there before them, a mile and a half round the point of Stack, lay
the Beaches. On either side of the smooth sweep of the sands rose mighty
cliffs, black as the eye of the midnight and scarred with clefts like
battered fortresses. Then at the Beaches themselves, the cliff wall fell