A Stranger Came Ashore by Mollie Hunter Page A

the treasure ships sunk around this island was something he could dive for at any time, but he still needed somewhere to keep it in readiness. And as for the trousers and money-belt he wore that night they would have been only too easy to acquire, what with so many poor drowned sailor men floating in the voe then.”
    Robbie felt a cold shiver at the picture this brought into his mind, but he still pressed on with the rest of what he had to say.
    “There’s one last thing,” he told Yarl Corbie. “When Finn Learson pulled me out of the water that day, he told me,
‘It’s high time you learned to leave the deep waters to those who can swim in them.’
And he warned me to keep out of the geo in future.”
    “Did he indeed!” Yarl Corbie exclaimed. “Well, that proves it, boy. The skin
must
be in that cave. And we had better lay hands on it soon – this very night, in fact – or we may lose the chance it gives for getting a hold over Finn Learson.”
    “
We
?” Robbie asked uncertainly, and Yarl Corbie looked suddenly taken aback.
    “Well …” he began, then he walked away from Robbie and stood looking at the knife in the desk. One hand went out to pull it free, and he turned to Robbie again, with the wicked gleam once more lighting his eye.
    “Yes, we,” he said softly, “because I never thought I would live to be revenged on the Great Selkie, and revenge is very sweet. But mark this, Robbie Henderson. It will take magic to defeat the Great Selkie’s magic – and you know what our minister is like! You heard the way he raged against superstition on the day of your Old Da’s funeral. And so what do you think he would do if he heard I was indeed practising the unholy arts that people say I do practise? One word, one hint of that, and he would seize on it to have me banished from the island, or jailed – or maybe something even worse!”
    “He’ll learn nothing from me,” Robbie said earnestly. “Nobody will!”
    “That had better be a promise,” Yarl Corbie assured him, “or I will be revenged on you also! Now get off home, but be down at the voe at midnight, and we will go together to find that skin.”

13. The Skin
    Robbie needed no second telling to get off home. He was out the door and away like a shot from a bow, and every step of the way home he was telling himself he would never have the courage to be alone in a boat with Yarl Corbie at midnight. In spite of that, however, he was still powerfully attracted by the thought of finding the Great Selkie’s skin, and it was this attraction which finally stiffened his nerve that night.
    Long after everyone else was asleep, he was still lying wide-eyed in his box of darkness. His ears were alert for the chimes of the grandfather clock in the but end, and on the first stroke of midnight, he slid open the door panel of his bed. Silently he stepped out on to the cold floor. Silently he bundled into his clothes, and crept barefoot into the but end.
    With his shoes still in his hand, he stole past the door that led through to the barn where Finn Learson lay sleeping. Carefully he eased up the latch of the front door, slipped outside, and latched it as carefully behind him.
    Above him, the sky was black with the deep, velvety blackness of northern skies in winter. A million stars had burned holes of frosty silver in the velvet black. Frost licked like silver fire over the grass underfoot. Robbie shivered as he bent to put on his shoes; but a frosty night meant there would be little wind, even at sea, and he was glad of that. Running fast and lightly, he headed for the beach, and saw the tall stooped figure of Yarl Corbie waiting for him.
    The schoolmaster was standing beside the Hendersons’ little boat, and without a word as Robbie arrived beside him, he gavea hand to push it out. The two of them clambered aboard, and Robbie bent to the oars. Yarl Corbie sat opposite him, hunched up into the tail-coat he wore now instead of his black gown, and he spoke