Free A Stranger Came Ashore by Mollie Hunter Page B

came ashore, Nicol – the night of the storm that wrecked the
Bergen
?”
    “Of course,” Nicol nodded. “But what’s that got to do with it?”
    “Just this,” Robbie answered. “He came ashore looking like a survivor of that wreck, and so everybody took it for granted that he was. But
he
never claimed to be a survivor. He never spoke about the
Bergen
as
my
ship. Whenever he mentioned it, he called it ‘the’ ship.”
    “And what’s that but a slip of the tongue?” Nicol asked. “He’s a Norwegian, isn’t he? At least, the ship was Norwegian, and you can tell from the way he speaks that he’s some sort of foreigner. And anyway, if he didn’t come from the ship, where could he have come from?”
    “I’ll get to that in a minute,” said Robbie. “But have you noticed, Nicol, that little smile he sometimes gives – as if he was enjoying some secret sort of joke?”
    “Well – now you mention it, I suppose I have,” Nicol admitted. “But, Robbie –”
    “Wait!” Robbie interrupted. “Let me tell you about his first night in our house, Nicol. We had trouble with Tam barking and growling then; but late that night he stared into Tam’s eyes, and the creature was frightened of him. It was after we were all in bed that this happened, but
I
saw it because I was awakened by Finn Learson playing on my Da’s fiddle.”
    “Playing what?” Nicol asked curiously. “And why would he do that?’
    “I can’t tell you why,” Robbie admitted, “but I do know
what
he played. It was selkie music – the kind of singing sound that selkies make in the geos at this time of the year – and it was all so strange that I thought afterwards it must have been a dream. Then, just before I fell overboard a couple of days ago, I heard the selkies making the same music and I knew that it hadn’t been a dream atall.”
    Nicol stared at this. Then he glanced around to make sure there was no one else within earshot, but it was down at the voe that this conversation took place and there was no one but himself and Robbie there.
    “You’re talking very strangely now,” he remarked. “And I’m not sure I should let you say any more –”
    “Yes you must,” Robbie interrupted again. “There’s the gold coin he gave us, Nicol. Old Da backed me up when I said it must have come from a sunken treasure ship, and Finn Learson never denied that was the case. He just said it was something he had picked up on his travels.”
    “And so it would be,” Nicol argued. “That’s what your Da thought it was, anyway – he told me so himself.”
    “Aye, but Finn Learson never said when or where he had picked it up,” Robbie pointed out, “and I think I know the answer to that now. A selkie could dive deep enough to reach a sunken treasure ship, and when Finn Learson pulled me out of the geo, he
felt
like a selkie.”
    Nicol stared again, then he smiled and said, “Oh aye, Robbie. And what other clues do you have to the ‘truth’ about Finn Learson?”
    “Things my Old Da told me, just before he died,” said Robbie, trying hard not to notice Nicol’s smile. “He didn’t trust Finn Learson, and he told
me
not to trust him. He said it had all happened before – that there was another man who had come ashore like Finn Learson. And he said that Elspeth was the one in danger.”
    Nicol’s smile vanished at these words. “She’s in danger of marrying him, if that’s what you mean,” said he sourly. “I don’t need
you
to tell me that.”
    “But that
is
the danger!” Robbie cried. “I know it is, from – well, from other things my Old Da told me.”
    “What do you mean by ‘other things?’” Nicol demanded. “What sort of things?”
    “Well,” said Robbie carefully, “it was when I was only a wee boy and he told me about the Great Selkie that rules in the deepest ocean. He has a palace of crystal there, Old Da said, and this palace is roofed with the hair of girls he has tempted into his kingdom and drowned