shook her head, and said he was not well and not like himself, and it was

a great pity. She knew nothing of the wreck. 'I havenae been near it,'

said she. 'What for would I go near it, Charlie lad? The poor souls are

gone to their account long syne; and I would just have wished they had

ta'en their gear with them--poor souls!'

This was scarcely any great encouragement for me to tell her of the

_Espirito Santo_; yet I did so, and at the very first word she cried out

in surprise. 'There was a man at Grisapol,' she said, 'in the month of

May--a little, yellow, black-avised body, they tell me, with gold rings

upon his fingers, and a beard; and he was speiring high and low for that

same ship.'

It was towards the end of April that I had been given these papers to

sort out by Dr. Robertson: and it came suddenly back upon my mind that

they were thus prepared for a Spanish historian, or a man calling himself

such, who had come with high recommendations to the Principal, on a

mission of inquiry as to the dispersion of the great Armada. Putting one

thing with another, I fancied that the visitor 'with the gold rings upon

his fingers' might be the same with Dr. Robertson's historian from

Madrid. If that were so, he would be more likely after treasure for

himself than information for a learned society. I made up my mind, I

should lose no time over my undertaking; and if the ship lay sunk in

Sandag Bay, as perhaps both he and I supposed, it should not be for the

advantage of this ringed adventurer, but for Mary and myself, and for the

good, old, honest, kindly family of the Darnaways.

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