Island, with the moon gleaming pale
above them. From the shore came the fresh smell of the seaweed and
the plaintive crying of the gulls.

The evening was growing late, and there were still half a dozen
miles of rough moorland between Ramna and Stromness. Over the braes
of Borwick we travelled at a steady pace. We were light of heart,
for we had had a successful expedition, as was proved not only by
our dead falcon and the two seals' skins, but, more than all, by
the great wealth that those seals' skins carried.

Many were our conjectures as to the meaning of that great horde of
silver we had discovered hidden in the sands of Skaill Bay.

"I wonder how it all came there!" mused Robbie, and then he added,
"D'ye ken what I think, lads?"

"What think you, then, Robbie?" I asked.

"Well," said he, "I just think it must have been cast there by some
shipwreck in the olden time. D'ye mind, Hal, of the story of the
wreck of yon Spanish ship on the Carrig-na-Spana?"

"What! the San Miguel?"

"Ay, maybe that was her name, I dinna ken. Well, if you mind, she
struck on the reef there, and the skipper dropped all his treasure
chests overboard, in mortal fear that the Orkney wreckers would rob
him of them. I suppose he took his bearings, but for many a day the
wreckers searched the waters, and never a thing did they find.
Well, years and years after that the old skipper's son came to
Orkney, and went straight to the spot where the treasure had been
sunk and carried it all off to Spain."

"But that explains nothing, Robbie," I argued. "However, we ken
well enough that those Spanish ships were aye loaded with gold and
precious stones. And then, d'ye not mind of hearing about the
Spanish Armada ships that were wrecked on the Orkneys? Now, I
wouldn't be surprised though the gear we have gotten was nothing
else than the wreckage of an Armada ship. Even the skull that
Willie found, maybe belonged to one of the soldier chaps that came
to fight the English. But what is your opinion, Willie? You should
know, for it was you who found the treasure."

"Well, Ericson," said he wisely, "I just think it was most
extraordinary to see the heaps of siller come out of the very sands
of the seashore, and in such a desolate place; and beyond that, it
was a most providential thing that the dog ran after yon wee rat.
What most gets over me, though, is to think of the rat making its
nest in the dead man's skull. Man! what a fright I had when th