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 the
beast jumped out! As for how the siller came there, I canna just
say; but, you mind, the dominie told us in the school that, lang
syne, some of those viking lads used to cruise hereabout. Now, I'm
thinking that it's just possible one of them had maybe left the
siller for safety in the Kierfiold Cave where I--where we found it,
and clean forgotten to go back for it; just as old Betsy Matthew
forgot the guineas she hid under the floor in the heel of a
stocking."

"Ay, I dinna doubt it may be so, Willie," observed Rosson. "But
then, what about the dead man's head?"

"'Deed I canna say what way that could be there. I'm thinking we
must e'en refer it to the dominie. He kens all about these things,"
said Hercus; and then he turned to Kinlay, who hitherto had
expressed no conjecture.

"But what think you of it all, Tom?"

"What do I think!" said Kinlay in a tone of indifference. "I care
not what way the silver came there. What does it matter? I'm only
thinking what I'll do with my own share of it."