my dear Miss Robinson Crusoe, may I ask how you came to be
acquainted with runic characters?"

"I don't know what they are," said Isobel. "It's very queer writing,
isn't it? I was only copying it for fun."

"Where did you copy it from?"

"It's on a stone at the top of the headland."

"This headland?"

"Yes, just above here, but a little farther on."

"Do you mean to tell me there is a stone bearing letters like that on
these cliffs?"

"Yes; it's a long kind of stone, something like a cross without arms."

"I thought I had walked over every inch of this island, yet I have never
noticed it."

"It was quite covered with brambles," said Isobel. "I found it when we
were picking blackberries. I had to pull them all away before I could
see it."

"If you can leave your domestic cares, I should very much like you to
show it to me," said the colonel. "I happen to be particularly
interested in such stones."

"I'll go at once," said Isobel, putting the kettle among the ashes,
where it could not boil over, and slamming on her hat. "It looks ever so
worn and old, but the letters are cut in the stone, like they are on
graves."

She led the way up the steep, narrow path which scaled the hill, on to
the cliff above, and after a little hunting about, found the brambly
spot which had been the scene of her quarrel with Belle.

The owner of the island knelt down and examined the stone intently for
some moments.

"To think that I must have passed this place dozens and dozens of times
and never have known of its existence!" he said at last. "I have
searched the neighbourhood so often for some record of the Viking
period. Strange that it should be found now by the chance discovery of a
child!"

"Are they really letters, then?" inquired Isobel. "Is it some foreign
language?"

"Yes; they are runes, very old and perfect ones. The runic characters
were used by our Teutonic forefathers before they learned the Roman
alphabet. This stone shows that long, long ago the Northmen have been
here."

"The same Northmen who came in their great ships, and burnt the abbey,
and killed St. Alcuin at the altar?" asked Isobel, keenly interested.

"Very likely, or their sons or grandsons."

"Why did they write upon a stone here?"

"It was set up as a monument--just like a grave stone in a churchyard."

"But if the Northmen were pagans, why is there a cross carved on the
stone?"

"Many of them settled in this country, and became Chris