Part 14 (2/2)

It was a steep cli folk were glad to fling therant heather

The breeze came laden with the scent of wild thyme and heather and salt from the sea; and the only live creatures save therey gulls which wheeled above the heads of the wayfarers

Harry looked about hi eyes

'What an awfully jolly place this is of yours,' he said 'I say, you _do_ see a lot froht The hill crest coreen fields andacross thee with the pier jutting out into the sea One or two larger islands were in the distance; brown rocks and skerries lying like dots upon the blue water; and away to the east the Highland hills rose a an island all to yourselves,'

continued Harry

'Yes,' replied Marjorie, perched on a boulder, 'and it's jollier still to have an island of your very ohere no one comes but ourselves, and we can do exactly as we like'

'Where's that?' inquired Harry

'I may tell them, mayn't I?' asked Marjorie of the others

'Of course you may,' replied Allan; 'we must take them there some day soon'

Marjorie slipped down from her perch

'Do you see the little island over there?' she said, pointing southwards; 'a little black dot on the water, with soreen in the middle of it? Well, that's our _own_ island which we have all to ourselves, and we've -place or Pirates' Den We azed out to sea, their eyes widening and brightening

'I say, this is jolly,' they murmured, rather than said to any one in particular

'Ha at some object on the southern side of the island; 'is that your father's gig, that has just stopped before Mrs Macdonnell's cottage?'

Hamish looked in the direction indicated

'Yes, I believe it is,' he said 'It must be true then, e heard Duncan say, that Mrs Macdonnell is very ill'

Such a grieved silence fell upon the island young people that the Grahaly

'They said that she would fall ill,' said Marjorie in a low voice, 'if--if she continued to fret so about----'

Allan pushed his cap to the back of his head, and Reggie looked hard in the direction of the cottage, where the black dot was still standing by the gate

'Nothing else found in the ruins?' said Allan in an undertone

'Nothing yet,' replied Ha to follow up the clue----'