ched Thora with a loud, harsh cry, and flapped its wide,
outstretched wings against her. Thora took hold of the rope tightly
with both hands, and placing her feet on a narrow ledge of rock,
looked round and uttered a shrill, "Tr-r-r-r," frightening the bird
away.

When we got safely down to within a couple of fathoms of the
surface of the clear water, we left the rope and made our way along
a strip of flaggy gneiss, until we reached an immense boulder which
had been detached from the main cliff. This great rock lay before
the cavern in a way that, as we found, not only hid the entrance from
view, but also--except, I suppose, in very stormy weather--prevented
the sea from flowing in. I crept behind this barrier, holding Thora's
hand, and we were soon at the mouth of the cave.

A slanting ray of sunshine found its way within, illumining the
great vaulted roof and the dripping stalactites, that looked like
giant icicles hanging above us. We were able to walk or scramble
over the rocks and shingle for a considerable distance.

When we passed into a part of the grotto where the darkness
deepened, however, Thora began to show signs of timidity. She spoke
of having heard about many an Orcadian who, in attempting to reach
the innermost recesses of such caverns, had been taken possession
of by the evil spirits that were commonly believed to inhabit these
places; and the strangely-echoing sounds we heard were exaggerated
in her imagination, and became to her as the weird voices of
kelpies and water nymphs.

I endeavoured to allay her fears as I proceeded to strike a light,
and reminded her of the magic stone that I had hanging at my neck;
but still she was reluctant to go further.

"Take you the stone yourself then, Thora, if you're afraid," I
said, as I took the cord from my neck. "It will keep you from
danger." And I looped the cord over her head.

Now Thora had an implicit faith in the virtues of that little
stone, and when she felt it resting on her throat her fears were at
once conquered.

It took some trouble to light our torch, but with the help of some
wool from my cap as tinder I set to work with flint and steel, and
at last we got the tar rope in a blaze. Thora took the torch in
hand and picked her way over the rocky floor, exploring every nook
and cranny of the cave. So rapidly did she skip from stone to stone
and climb over the intervening boulders, that I frequently found it
difficult to keep up with her.