CHAPTER XI.
THE SILVER CHIEF ARRIVES.
The scene changes to the home of the founder of the Colony.

The Earl of Selkirk is living at his interesting seat--St.Mary's Isle, and letter after letter arrives which has taken many weeks on the road, coming down through trackless prairie, across the middle and Eastern States of America and reaching him via New York.

These letters continue to increase in being more and more terrible until his island home seems to be in a state of siege.
St.Mary's Isle lies at the mouth of the Dee on Solway Frith, opposite the town of Kirkcudbright.

Here in 1778 Paul Jones, the so-called pirate in the employ of the Revolutionary Government in America, had landed, invested the dwelling with his men, and carried away all the plate and jewels of the House of Selkirk.

The Old Manor House of St.Mary's Isle, with its very thick stone wall on one side, evidently had been a keep or castle.