Resting after the work of carrying our burden up the cliffs, we
stood for a space upon the heights above Row Head to watch the
sails of the fleet growing smaller as they approached the distant
line of the horizon. The leaden sea danced in the fresh breeze, and
the sky gradually lost its golden tints and assumed the clear, cold
hue of the northern twilight. To the southward, across the moor,
rose the dark mountains of Hoy 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.
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