Such were Beatrice's thoughts, while Idris, more prosaic, was on his knees, removing the earth from the foot of the pillar, and scraping the surface of the stone with his penknife in the hope of finding runic letters engraved upon it: but in this he met with disappointment; each face of the hexagon was free from inscription.
"I was hoping," he said, rising to his feet, "to come upon some epitaph, such as, 'I, Magnus, raise this stone to the memory of my sire, Orm', which would give me proof that I am on the right track, since, after all, my opinion that this is the tomb of the Golden Viking is purely conjectural."
They descended to level ground again, and Idris proceeded to walk slowly around the base of the hillock, endeavouring to take no more than a foot at each step.
"The circumference is, roughly speaking, about one hundred and fifty feet," he remarked, when he had completed the circuit. "The diameter, therefore, will be about fifty, and the centre about twenty-five feet off."
"If you have that distance, or nearly that distance, of solid earth to bore through, you have a hard task," said Beatrice.
"My work will be of a much lighter nature, I trust. If this tumulus has been constructed like the generality of its kind, there should be a stone chamber in the centre with a stone passage leading to it from the side of the mound. Earth was piled over the mouth of the passage, but marks, usually taking the shape of two upright stones, were left to indicate the entrance."
"What point of the compass did the Norsemen favour when constructing the entrance-passage of their tumuli?"
"The point of ingress usually faced the east."
"This is the easternmost point, nearest the sea," said Beatrice, moving onward a few steps; and full of their enterprise, she cried, "Let us try to find the guide-stones."
They carefully surveyed the eastern curve of the base, Beatrice probing with the point of her sunshade, and Idris with the ferule of his walking-stick, among the long grass and bracken that grew in profusion at the foot of the hillock. Their search, however, was without result.