A Stranger Came Ashore Read Free Page A

but both dog and man were lit by the fire’s glow, and Robbie saw that Finn Learson had his hands cupped lightly around Tam’s head. His eyes were fixed on Tam’s eyes, and it seemed to Robbie that he was commanding Tam to silence with this stare.
    It struck Robbie, too, that Tam was afraid of the look holding him there as well as fascinated by it, for the dog was shivering all over its body. Lower and lower it crouched, its eyes never leaving Finn Learson’s eyes, its growl fading with every second of the look; until finally, it was altogether silent.
    Finn Learson drew his hands away from its head, and in that moment he looked up, straight into Robbie’s eyes. The firelight fell on his face, making a gleaming red mask of it in the surrounding dusk. His great dark eyes seemed bigger and darker than ever in that red mask, and the effect of all this sent a stab of fear through Robbie.
    Everything he had meant to say fled from his mind then, and allhe could think of was getting back to his safe, warm bed. Stepping backwards he began gently to close the door and as he did so, Finn Learson rose to his feet. Robbie’s heart quickened its beat still further, but he continued with his gentle closing of the door; and the last thing he saw in the last inch of its closing was Tam, still staring up in fascination at the man in front of him.
    Quickly and silently then, Robbie dashed for his bed, and creeping into it, he lay wondering about everything that had happened. It was very late at night by this time, however, and he was still tired. Also, it was very cosy, lying there in the warmth beside Old Da. Robbie soon found he was too drowsy to think properly; and promising himself he would work out all the whys and wherefores of it in the morning, he drifted off to sleep again.

3. Gold …
    The storm had not quite blown itself out by the time morning came, and the Hendersons woke to find that Old Da had been right in thinking the
Bergen
had foundered. There was plenty of wreckage from it, however, and this was already drawing people down from all the other houses on the hill overlooking the voe.
    â€œCome on!” urged Janet, giving everyone breakfast on the run; but Robbie had something more than wreckage to think about at that moment, for strange events that happen in the middle of the night have a way of seeming as far off and unreal as a dream the next day, and this was how things were for him then.
    He stared around the but end, wondering if he had indeed dreamt the events of the night before; for there was his father’s fiddle hanging in its usual place, and there was Tam dozing peacefully as usual in front of the fire. There was Finn Learson too, looking like any other young man supping porridge along with everyone else, and not giving a single hint or sign that he had ever moved from his night’s sleep on the restin’ chair.
    Robbie swallowed down his own porridge, telling himself that he
must
have dreamt about the strange music and the look that had commanded Tam to silence. It was impossible to imagine otherwise, in fact, with everything now so much as usual and daylight making the but end itself seem such an ordinary place!
    The need to make haste in starting the salvage work began to take a grip on him also, so that even the “dream” grew fainter in his mind. Then came something else which drove it still further away. A voice called from outside the house, the familiar and very cheerful voice ofElspeth’s young man, Nicol Anderson; and Nicol, as it happened, was also Robbie’s very good friend.
    Robbie rushed to let him into the but end, and then the place seemed crowded, for Nicol was a big fellow – as big and powerful a man as Finn Learson, in fact. Moreover, he had gleaming red hair that gave him the look of a big, smiling sun when he laughed, and which also drew even more attention to his height.
    â€œWho’s ready to come down to the voe, then?” he asked, after all