Read Online A Stranger Came Ashore by Mollie Hunter - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Mollie Hunter
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unfriendly, now that it was wide awake and could sense the alarm of the others; and resigning himself to this at last, Robbie walked back to the boat.
But still, he told himself, he had done what be had set out to do. He had discovered at last what a selkie
felt
like, and so he had learned something that even Old Da had never been able to teach him – quite apart from which, it had been fun to hold the pup!
Feeling greatly pleased with himself as he came to this conclusion, Robbie considered what he could do next, and wondered if he should head for one of the big geos where he knew there was a nursery of over fifty pups. He could take the boat into the geo, he thought, and from a safe distance there he could watch the three bull selkies that roared challenges to one another as they guarded the beach. And he could count the pups, to see if any more had been born since his last visit!
This last thought decided him on what he wanted to do, and bending strongly to the oars, he headed for the big geo.
It was not far away. Twenty minutes of rowing like this brought him to the entrance channel, and with careful strokes, he backed the boat through this narrow passage. In the wider water beyond, he turned the boat; then, gently feathering as Old Da had taught him, he sat staring at every detail in the scene around him.
The water lapping the boat was deep and green, the colour of melted emeralds. The high cliff walls of the geo were wet black, streaked with dull green veins of serpentine. The upward slope of the shingle beach at the geo’s inner end was backed by a great jumble of larger stones; and above this jumble, the empty mouth of a cave yawned, huge and black.
On the beach itself, three bull seals reared up, bellowing at one another. And everywhere around the great, greyish-black forms of the bulls, right from the mouth of the cave down to the edge of the emerald water, was a mass of cow seals and their pups.
The sight of the boat had already sent these cow seals heading for the water; and soon, as Robbie rowed closer inshore, they were gliding all around him. He had other things on his mind at that moment, however, and paying no attention to the graceful forms of the cow seals, he prepared for his count of the pups.
He would have to stand up in the boat to make this count, he decided; otherwise, he would not get a clear view of the pups that lay among the big boulders at the back of the beach. But standing up in the boat need not unbalance it, of course – not if he used the trick he had learned along with all the other boys of Black Ness playing around with boats in the shallows of the voe.
Carefully slipping one of his oars on this decision, Robbie slid the other one over the stern of the boat. Then, rising to his feet and holding this second oar almost upright against the stern, he made quick, gentle little movements that sent the boat sculling steadily along the line of the shore.
The three bull seals roared again, as if in astonishment at this sight. The pups kept up a shrill mewing for their vanished mothers;and, rearing chest-high out of the water, the cow seals themselves began to make the sort of noise that cow seals do make at this particular time of the year.
Robbie quite forgot to count then, for this noise from the cow seals was a high, sweet one that sounded like human voices sliding up a scale and echoing eerily between the steep walls of the geo. Also, it was something he had never heard before, in spite of all the times he had watched seals, and he was quite entranced by it. Maybe, he thought, it was this that Old Da had been thinking about when he told that long-ago story about selkie singing …
Then suddenly at the back of his mind, he found a different sort of memory stirring. He
had
heard this noise before, he realised. It was the singing sound he had heard from his father’s fiddle on Finn Learson’s first night on the island!
The boat began to rock under him as his mind wandered further
But still, he told himself, he had done what be had set out to do. He had discovered at last what a selkie
felt
like, and so he had learned something that even Old Da had never been able to teach him – quite apart from which, it had been fun to hold the pup!
Feeling greatly pleased with himself as he came to this conclusion, Robbie considered what he could do next, and wondered if he should head for one of the big geos where he knew there was a nursery of over fifty pups. He could take the boat into the geo, he thought, and from a safe distance there he could watch the three bull selkies that roared challenges to one another as they guarded the beach. And he could count the pups, to see if any more had been born since his last visit!
This last thought decided him on what he wanted to do, and bending strongly to the oars, he headed for the big geo.
It was not far away. Twenty minutes of rowing like this brought him to the entrance channel, and with careful strokes, he backed the boat through this narrow passage. In the wider water beyond, he turned the boat; then, gently feathering as Old Da had taught him, he sat staring at every detail in the scene around him.
The water lapping the boat was deep and green, the colour of melted emeralds. The high cliff walls of the geo were wet black, streaked with dull green veins of serpentine. The upward slope of the shingle beach at the geo’s inner end was backed by a great jumble of larger stones; and above this jumble, the empty mouth of a cave yawned, huge and black.
On the beach itself, three bull seals reared up, bellowing at one another. And everywhere around the great, greyish-black forms of the bulls, right from the mouth of the cave down to the edge of the emerald water, was a mass of cow seals and their pups.
The sight of the boat had already sent these cow seals heading for the water; and soon, as Robbie rowed closer inshore, they were gliding all around him. He had other things on his mind at that moment, however, and paying no attention to the graceful forms of the cow seals, he prepared for his count of the pups.
He would have to stand up in the boat to make this count, he decided; otherwise, he would not get a clear view of the pups that lay among the big boulders at the back of the beach. But standing up in the boat need not unbalance it, of course – not if he used the trick he had learned along with all the other boys of Black Ness playing around with boats in the shallows of the voe.
Carefully slipping one of his oars on this decision, Robbie slid the other one over the stern of the boat. Then, rising to his feet and holding this second oar almost upright against the stern, he made quick, gentle little movements that sent the boat sculling steadily along the line of the shore.
The three bull seals roared again, as if in astonishment at this sight. The pups kept up a shrill mewing for their vanished mothers;and, rearing chest-high out of the water, the cow seals themselves began to make the sort of noise that cow seals do make at this particular time of the year.
Robbie quite forgot to count then, for this noise from the cow seals was a high, sweet one that sounded like human voices sliding up a scale and echoing eerily between the steep walls of the geo. Also, it was something he had never heard before, in spite of all the times he had watched seals, and he was quite entranced by it. Maybe, he thought, it was this that Old Da had been thinking about when he told that long-ago story about selkie singing …
Then suddenly at the back of his mind, he found a different sort of memory stirring. He
had
heard this noise before, he realised. It was the singing sound he had heard from his father’s fiddle on Finn Learson’s first night on the island!
The boat began to rock under him as his mind wandered further
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