hey mean?

I was questioning in my own mind what Colin could have meant when
Mr. Drever asked us all to sit at the table. He had some statement
to make.

Turning to Mr. Duke he said:

"In the remarkable evidence just given by Thora--I will not now
call her Thora Kinlay--you who heard it were no doubt astonished at
the revelation made to her by Colin Lothian in his dying moments."

"Yes, dominie," said Mr. Duke. "I have just been asking Thora what
Colin could have meant. Can you throw any light on the matter
yourself?"

"I believe we can throw some light on it, bailie, and perhaps you
can help me to make the matter clear."

The schoolmaster stood with his hand resting on the chest that had
been brought from the cave.

"First of all," said he, "I will ask if you remember Carver
Kinlay's arrival in the Mainland?"

"Right well do I remember it," said Mr. Duke. "He was cast ashore
in the wreck of a Danish barque about a dozen years ago, or more.
What was the ship's name, now?"

"The Undine?" suggested Mr. Drever.

"Ay, that's just it, the Undine. And Sandy Ericson found Carver in
some hole in the cliff two or three days after the wreck."

"That was so," said Andrew. "And you will also mind that Carver was
not alone in the cave. There was a child with him--a little girl."

"Yes, yes; I mind that now, Andrew. The child was Thora herself."

"And that cave was the same that the smugglers were taken in on
Saturday," said David Flett.

"The very same," said the dominie. "And this box, here, has
remained in the cave ever since the wreck. See, the ship's name is
painted on it!"

And he turned the box with the name outward. We read the word
"Undine."

The schoolmaster then opened the box and took from it a bundle of
papers and a book, handing them to the bailie.

"By these you will see, sir, that the barque Undine sailed from
Glasgow, bound for Copenhagen, and that her owner's name was
Quendale--Ephraim Quendale, of Copenhagen. The ship's book will
also show you that at Glasgow she took on board the man Carver
Kinlay and his wife, his son Tom, and an infant girl."

"The girl Thora--" put in Bailie Duke.

"Wait a bit, sir," said Andrew, continuing. "There were four
persons saved from the wreck in pilot Ericson's boat. These were
Kinlay's wife and their boy Tom, a Danish seaman, and a gentleman
passenger. That passenger, sir, was Ephraim Quendale himself, the
owner of the ship, who, from what I gather, seems