Now I confess that I had not before thought anything at all about
what we should do with the silver. I was so much interested in the
circumstance of our curious discovery of the hidden treasure that
the thought of its market value, or of our means of disposing of
it, had never entered my head; and I believe Hercus and Rosson were
totally ignorant of the fact that our find was really worth more
than the mere interest we naturally attached to the articles as
curious antiquities. Had I been asked as to the disposal of them, I
believe I would have proposed that the whole treasure should be
handed over to the care of our schoolmaster, who would doubtless
see that we did not lose by any sale he might effect.

Tom Kinlay was the first to suggest the sharing of the silver
pieces. We could offer no reasonable objection to a plan which
seemed so fair to all of us, and we agreed that before we parted an
equal division should be made.

Walking along a stretch of bleak moorland bordering the sea, taking
always the nearest cuts across the jutting points of rocky
headland, we at length approached the quaint graveyard of Bigging.
The night was clear, and light almost as day; but Robbie and Willie
would, I believe, rather have gone many miles out of our direct way
than go near that awesome place.

The ruined chapel and the long, flat tombstones surrounding it,
seemed to have an eerie influence upon our imagination, and we
could but whistle some merry tune to keep up our hearts. Willie
Hercus, though naturally daring, was now especially timid, the
remembrance of that skull he had handled having taken such hold of