and learned that he, with the mate and
Jerry, had only the evening before gone back to Orkney in a
Kirkwall fishing sloop.

The two Fair Islanders then helped me to take the Falcon into their
small landlocked haven, where, having supplied the good people with
an abundance of provisions, I engaged the services of three
fishermen to help me with the schooner back to Stromness, and on
the morning following we set sail.

It was well that I got this timely assistance, and that I was not
suffered to remain any longer alone on the Falcon, for on leaving
Fair Isle we encountered boisterous weather. For two days we were
tossed about on the great, white-crested waves of the open sea, and
frequent showers of hail and sleet added to our discomfort. The
storm abated somewhat as the rocky shores of Pomona hove in sight,
and soon the familiar bay of Skaill and the cliffs of my native
parish seaboard showed me that the voyage was approaching a welcome
end.

It was evening when the schooner passed abreast of the rocks of
Yeskenaby, and now I watched eagerly for the light in the windows
of Lyndardy farm. As I looked landward, however, I observed
something through the growing darkness that excited considerable
wonder in my mind. Low down in the North Gaulton cliffs I noticed a
peculiar hazy light. Presently it grew brighter and developed into
a flickering flame and then disappeared. The light was not seen by
any of my crew; but from its position I judged that it proceeded
from a torch which someone was using in that cave in the cliff
wherein Thora and I had met with our adventure some weeks before.

Chapter XXXIV. Colin Lothian Makes An Accusation.

When I went ashore at Stromness I found that Captain Flett, who had
landed in Orkney three or four days before me, had not yet come
over from Kirkwall; so next morning I paid off my three Fair
Islanders, who went over by land to Kirkwall, intending to return
to their home by the sloop that had brought my skipper and
shipmates.

I saw the schooner safely moored in the bay, with her cabin door
locked and her hatchway closed, and then went up home to Lyndardy.
My mother and Jessie had already heard that the Falcon had come
into the harbour; they gave me a very warm welcome from this my
first voyage, and listened with interest and surprise to the things
I had to tell them.

On my way through the town the following morning I chanced to meet
my old schoolmaster, who walked along wit