By our united efforts we enlarged the hole that Willie and the dog
had made, digging with the harpoon and removing with our hands the
loosened stones. We found a quantity of antique coins of various
sizes, which, by reason of their lightness, I suppose, were much
scattered about. Then deeper down below these we came upon a number
of large rings, or bracelets, in the form of horseshoes, and
several ingots of silver, similar to the one Hercus had first
found.
We grew excited in our search; and as the quantity of treasure we
unearthed increased, so did we increase our exertions, until there
was quite a heap of silver gathered upon the slab of flagstone
where we placed it.
At a spot near where Hercus had discovered the skull we found a
curious garment, formed of a fine network of rings and chains. It
was much broken and torn--though the shoulder bands were preserved,
as well as the collar--and we could see that the owner, whoever he
might have been, must have had a large and strong body, for the
coat was of great weight. Beside it there were what we took to be
the remains of a helmet, the ornaments upon which were of a yellow
and still untarnished metal, with a large crimson stone set in the
front.
Hercus pronounced the metal to be brass; but I never discovered
truly what it was, as I did not handle the fragments again, for the
reason that (as I happened to notice at the time) Tom Kinlay, who
kept silence regarding them, quietly put them in his pocket,
allowing us afterwards to suppose that we had left them behind us.
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