Merton rapidly explained. ‘Now, what tidings?’ he asked.
The party walked aside on the shore, and Bude swiftly narrated what he had discovered.
‘They have been there,’ he said. ‘We drew six of the islets blank, including the islet of the lighthouse. The men there had seen a large yacht, two ladies and a gentleman from it had visited them. They knew no more. Desert places, the other isles are, full of birds. On the seventh isle we found some Highland fishermen from the Lewis in a great state of excitement. They had only landed an hour before to pick up some fish they had left to dry on the rocks. They had no English, but one of our crew had the Gaelic,
and interpreted in Scots. Regular Gaels, they did not want to speak, but I offered money, gold, let them see it. Then they took us to a cave. Do you know Mackinnon’s cave in Mull, opposite Iona?’
‘Yes, drive on!’ said Merton, much interested.
‘Well, inside it was pitched an empty corrugated iron house, quite new, and another, on the further side, outside the cave.’
‘I picked up this in the interior of the cave,’ said Lady Bude.
‘This’ was a golden hair-pin of peculiar make.
‘That’s the kind of hair-pin she wears,’ said Lady Bude.
‘By Jove!’ said Merton and Logan in one voice.