g to do but
tend the helm and keep the boat well to the wind, and away we sped.

Our enjoyment of the sail was so full that we spoke but little. We
talked of Tom Kinlay's work on his father's new boat, and made
surmises as to the nature of the trade or traffic it was to be
engaged in; but whether the boat was to be sent to the saith
fishing, or to be used as a tender to the ships, we could not tell.

There was one thing that Robbie wanted to set his mind easy about,
and that was the viking's amulet. In common with all the lads in
the school, he had heard of the wonderful powers attributed to this
little stone; and, like them, he was thoroughly credulous of its
ability to preserve me from personal harm, vet anxious as I was
myself to put it to the proof.

"I'd like fine if we could have a chance of adventure today," he
said, taking the stone in his hand as it hung by a cord from my
neck. "How can we be sure that the thing will be the saving of you,
if ye dinna put it to the trial?"

"We'll see, we'll see," I said. "But there's no use seeking danger
for the sake of trying the effects of the charm. Maybe we'll find
the danger without seeking it, however, and then we'll have the
proof."

As we sailed swiftly under the high cliffs of Hoy Head we watched
the mad plunging of the landward-rushing waves, and saw them hurl
themselves at the great rocks, leaping in clouds of spray. What a
rattle and a roar each wave made on the pebbles of the beach as it
drew back before returning to the charge! And in the midst of the
foam the sea birds circled and screamed in their flight.

We had some difficulty in finding a safe landing place among the
surge; but at last we steered the boat into the quiet Bay of the
Stairs, and soon drove her nose into the stony beach and drew her
well up out of the water, fastening her painter round a large rock.

Safely landed, Robbie shouldered the climbing ropes and I took the
gun, having a stock of dry powder and shot in my pockets. We
climbed over some large boulders into the next creek, where, as we
had expected, we found a multitude of noisy sea birds, some
floating on the clear pools on the shore; others running about
among the sea-worn stones or seeking food with busy beaks in the
bright green and crimson weeds that lay in patches among the
pebbles. The ledges of the cliffs were crowded with gulls, whose
plumage was as snowy as the very foam that the high waves scattered
over their ranks. I