A Stranger Came Ashore by Mollie Hunter

thought, and even harder to imagine him as a jealous young man in love with a golden-haired girl. But there was one thing at least he could grasp in all this, and surely that was the very thing that mattered now! Triumphantly, Robbie spoke his thoughts aloud.
    “You hated the Great Selkie! You
still
hate him!”
    Yarl Corbie leaned forward, glaring. “I know what’s in your mind,” he snapped. “You think that’s reason enough for me to help you now. But you’re wrong.
I
know the things they say of me, herein Black Ness, and I am not going to give them cause to say more.”
    “But no one would know,” Robbie pleaded. “Not from me, at least. And what’s to become of Elspeth if you don’t help? She’ll be like that other girl – Anne. And that will be your fault.”
    Yarl Corbie frowned at this, until his eyebrows almost met above his beaky nose. Then he clasped his hands behind his back and began striding up and down, his tattered black gown flapping with every step. He looked more like a big, ungainly raven than ever, thought Robbie, and felt the same old dread seizing him again. There was no way of going back on what he had done, however, and he was impatient now, as well as afraid. Biting his lip, he watched the tall, striding figure, and at last Yarl Corbie said, “I was young and foolishe cannot return to his kingdom under the seah when I went after the Great Selkie with a knife, but I am old enough and wise enough now to know that he cannot be killed with any mortal weapon. He cannot be defeated either – not when he has his natural form of a selkie, at least. But there
is
one way of making sure he can do no harm while he has a man’s shape; one way only.”
    Yarl Corbie halted in his stride, and shot one of his knowing looks at Robbie. “I cannot see any hope of your carrying that out,” he went on. “But nevertheless, you might as well know something about it – which means that you must first of all discover where he hid his selkie skin when he shed it to come ashore. If you do that, you will have a hold over him that could bend him to your will; for, without that skin,
he cannot return to his kingdom under the sea
.”
    Robbie stood staring at Yarl Corbie, his heart racing suddenly so fast that he could hardly speak. “But,” he managed, “but I –”
    Yarl Corbie held up a hand. “I know,” he said. “The search for it would be a hopeless one. There are so many places around the coast of the voe where it could be; so many caves –”
    “But I
know
where it is!” interrupted Robbie, shouting. “I know!” And still breathing hard, he rushed on to tell Yarl Corbie about the cave in the geo where he had gone to count the selkie pups.
    “So you see,” he finished triumphantly, “it
must
be hidden there, or Finn Learson would not have bothered to keep me in sight from the clifftop that day. He only did that because he was afraid I would go into the cave and find the skin. And
that
was what he meant when he said he had a feeling I might get into trouble in the geo!”
    A wicked gleam came into Yarl Corbie’s eyes, making them sharper and brighter than ever. With one long hand stroking his chin, he murmured, “You could be right, boy. A cave like that – so handy for reaching Black Ness and yet so well hidden from the houses there – would be a perfect lurking-place for him. He could shed his skin and take human form quite safely there when the time came for him to do so. And from there also, he would find it easy enough to swim ashore as if he had just come from a wreck!”
    “Of course,” Robbie agreed eagerly. “And the chance came when the
Bergen
was wrecked with all hands drowned, so that there was nobody left to say he was
not
a survivor. Moreover, he knew he would need money of some kind on the island, and the cave would give him somewhere to store his gold, all ready to take ashore with him.”
    “Yes, yes, that could be the way of it,” Yarl Corbie nodded. “Gold from