I supposed he must have swum the strait ; though what should bring any creature to Earraid , was more than I could fancy . A little after , as I was jumping about after my limpets , I was startled by a guinea-piece , which fell upon a rock in front of me and glanced off into the sea . When the sailors gave me my money again , they kept back not only about a third of the whole sum , but my father 's leather purse ; so that from that day out , I carried my gold loose in a pocket with a button . I now saw there must be a hole , and clapped my hand to the place in a great hurry . But this was to lock the stable door after the steed was stolen . I had left the shore at Queensferry with near on fifty pounds ; now I found no more than two guinea-pieces and a silver shilling . It is true I picked up a third guinea a little after , where it lay shining on a piece of turf . That made a fortune of three pounds and four shillings , English money , for a lad , the rightful heir of an estate , and now starving on an isle at the extreme end of the wild Highlands . This state of my affairs dashed me still further ; and , indeed my plight on that third morning was truly pitiful . My clothes were beginning to rot ; my stockings in particular were quite worn through , so that my shanks went naked ; my hands had grown quite soft with the continual soaking ; my throat was very sore , my strength had much abated , and my heart so turned against the horrid stuff I was condemned to eat , that the very sight of it came near to sicken me . And yet the worst was not yet come . There is a pretty high rock on the northwest of Earraid , which -LRB- because it had a flat top and overlooked the Sound -RRB- I was much in the habit of frequenting ; not that ever I stayed in one place , save when asleep , my misery giving me no rest . Indeed , I wore myself down with continual and aimless goings and comings in the rain . As soon , however , as the sun came out , I lay down on the top of that rock to dry myself . The comfort of the sunshine is a thing I can not tell . It set me thinking hopefully of my deliverance , of which I had begun to despair ; and I scanned the sea and the Ross with a fresh interest . On the south of my rock , a part of the island jutted out and hid the open ocean , so that a boat could thus come quite near me upon that side , and I be none the wiser . Well , all of a sudden , a coble with a brown sail and a pair of fishers aboard of it , came flying round that corner of the isle , bound for Iona . I shouted out , and then fell on my knees on the rock and reached up my hands and prayed to them . They were near enough to hear -- I could even see the colour of their hair ; and there was no doubt but they observed me , for they cried out in the Gaelic tongue , and laughed .
But the boat never turned aside , and flew on , right before my eyes , for XXXXX .
Earraid Iona Queensferry Ross colour day guinea-piece guinea-pieces pounds shilling