Two men were then sent below to search for Baudrons, and I waited for their return. In about a quarter of an hour one of them came to say that the cat could not be found.
"Very well, then, I can't keep the lad here any longer. We must send the cat ashore with the pilot."
Then the captain turned to me.
"Goodbye, Halcro, my lad!" he said; "perhaps we'll be back in Orkney on our homeward voyage. Maybe you'll be a pilot yourself by that time, and bring us into port. Goodbye!"
"Goodbye, Captain Gordon!" I murmured; and at that I slipped over the taffrail and was soon sitting in my boat again, rowing back to the town.
[Chapter XIV]. Thora.
On my way to the school that morning I chanced to meet Hercus and Rosson coming down one of the side alleys.
"I say, lads," I began, "d'ye ken what Dominie Drever says about the siller things we found at Skaill?"
"No! what is it, Hal?" asked Hercus.
"Why, he says that it was an old sea king's grave that we discovered--one of those viking lads that we read about in the history book."