“You will find them genuine,” said Sir David. “I had my own fears regarding them at first, thinking that this foreigner was trying the trick which Robert Cockran, the mason, accomplished so successfully during the reign of your grandfather, mixing the silver coins with copper and lead; but I had them tested by a goldsmith in Edinburgh and was assured the pieces are just what they claim to be.”
“Prudent man!” exclaimed the king, throwing himself down on a seat and jingling the gold pieces. “Well, Davie, what do you think of it all? Give me an opinion as honest as the coin.”
“Truth to tell, your majesty, I do not know what to think of it. It may be as he says, that the earth here contains particles of gold, that are drawn to the bars he throws in the melting-pot. If the man is a cheat, where can he hope for his profit?”
“Where indeed? I mind you told me he had other marvellous inventions; what are they?”
“He has a plan by which a man in full armour can enter the water and walk beneath it for any length of time without suffocating.”
“Have you seen this tried?”
“No, your majesty; there has been no opportunity.”
“What an admirable contrivance for invading Ireland! What are his plans as far as England is concerned? He seems, if I remember your tale aright, to have some animosity in that direction.”
“He has constructed a pair of wings, and each soldier being provided with them can sail through the air across the Border.”
“Admirable, admirable!” exclaimed the king nodding his head. “Now indeed is England ours, and France too for that matter, if his wings will carry so far. Have you seen these wings?”