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.
“Come 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 of Elspeth’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.
“Who’s ready to come down to the voe, then?” he asked, after all the explanations about Finn Learson had been made; and instantly, Robbie was on his feet.
“I am!” said he. Then off he hurried to the voe with Nicol, firmly putting even the memory of his strange “dream” from his mind, and never thinking he was making the great mistake of his young life in doing so.
Robbie was in good company with this, however, for everyone in Black Ness made mistakes that morning; and naturally enough, these were the same ones that the Henderson family had already made about Finn Learson.
No one doubted for a moment that he was indeed a survivor of the wreck, and so there was nothing but sympathy for him. No one asked him any more questions than had already been asked – there was no time for this, since the wreckage was so widely scattered over the voe that everyone was anxious to get it ashore before it could drift even further. Moreover, Finn Learson immediately offered his help in this work; and since Nicol Anderson was the only man there who equalled him in size and strength, this offer was eagerly accepted.
So, for hours after that, the work went on, with Finn Learson bending his back so willingly to it that there was even greater sympathy for him when the tide eventually brought the bodies of the Bergen’s crew washing ashore.
Old Da Henderson was as good as his word, however, and the bodies were buried just above high-water mark at the point where they were found. A stone was placed to mark each grave, a hymn was sung, and Old Da spoke a prayer.
“Amen,” said everyone at the end of this. And that Amen was the final word on the wreck of the Bergen; for, the way they all saw it then, it was bad enough for a young fellow like Finn Learson to lose all his mates in one night without folk asking questions that would only remind him of this loss.
There was still the question of what he would do next, however; and so, after supper that night, Peter began, “And what are your plans now, lad? Are you thinking of going back to your own country?”
“No,” said Finn Learson, taking a sideways glance at the fiddle on the wall. “I’m in no hurry to do that.”
“Then what will you do?” Peter asked. “Will you take ship for another voyage?”
“Indeed, no!” Finn Learson told him. “It’s the land for me for a while.”
“And no one could blame you for that!” Peter agreed. “Which means you’ll be here for a few days yet, I suppose – and welcome, I’m sure, if you do not mind our sort of life.”
“Far from that,” Finn Learson assured him. “I think it must be a fine life! A few weeks of it, in fact – or even a few months – would be nearer what I have in mind.”
Now the Hendersons were hospitable people, but they were also much too poor to be burdened for months with a pair of idle hands and an idle mouth to feed. Yet where was Finn Learson to live if he stayed for months on the island, unless it was with them? None of them had the answer to this question, but Finn Learson guessed the meaning of their silence, and quickly he added, “But I would not expect to stay here for nothing, of course!” With his hand reaching into the pouch of his canvas moneybelt as he said this, he pulled out a coin and laid it on the table; but this only left the Hendersons even more lost for words, for the coin was a large one and it was made of gold.
It was also an old coin, so old that the pattern had been rubbed almost smooth; and as they stared in wonder at it, Finn Learson asked anxiously, “Is that not enough?”
“Enough!” Janet exclaimed. “It’s a fortune, man! But where in the world did you get so ancient a coin?”
“Off a sunken treasure ship!” guessed Robbie, thinking that this must certainly be the answer; but his father frowned, and told him, “You talk an awful lot of nonsense, boy.”
“I don’t know about that,” Old Da objected. “I remember, when I was a young man I saw a coin washed ashore from a Spanish treasure ship that was wrecked in ancient times on this island. A piece of eight, they called it, and it looked exactly like this one.”
“I don’t doubt you,” Peter remarked. “But you know what Robbie is like! He was letting his fancy run away with a whole shipload of treasure, instead of the odd piece a sailor man might pick up on his travels – which is where this one came from I’ll wager!”
Finn Learson smiled at this – the same, rather odd little smile Robbie had noticed the night before. “Yes, of course,” he agreed. “It is just something I picked up on my travels. And since I have no coins in my belt of the kind you use, it is all I can offer you.”
“But we cannot take it,” Janet declared, “for gold does not lose its value however old the coins that are made from it. And this one is worth more than it would cost to keep you, supposing you stayed for a year with us.”
Finn Learson began to speak again, but Peter checked him.
“Wait,” said he. “Let me tell you this. There is no money to be made from fishing in the voe, and none either from working a croft. And so, all the men like myself have to go off every summer to earn money at the deep-sea fishing – the haaf, as we call it. But before we can do that, there is all the spring work of the croft to be tackled – digging, planting, sowing, cutting peats–”
“I can see what’s in your mind!” Old Da interrupted, and then turned ruefully to Finn Learson. “I’m getting too old to share such hard work,” he went on, “and Robbie is still too young to give a man’s help on the croft. Yet there are only six weeks left now before Peter goes off to the haaf, and if he does not manage to get the crops in before then, how will we all eat next winter?”
“But if you were willing to help me with that work,” Peter finished, “it would be worth more to us than the cost of your stay here, and it would give you a real chance to try our kind of life. So, what do you say, Finn Learson?”
“I say ‘Done!’” Finn Learson exclaimed. “But you must still have the gold, for it may still cost you more than you think to have me here.”
“Nonsense!” Peter and Janet protested together, and Peter began sliding the coin across the table to Finn Learson. Yet still he would not allow this.
“If you will not take it in payment,” said he, “take it at least as a keepsake of me when I have gone back to my own country.”
Firmly he pushed the coin back across the table. Then, with a glance at Elspeth, he added, “There! When you look at that, you’ll remember it did not seem half so bright to me as the gold of your daughter’s hair.”
Elspeth blushed scarlet at this, but the others laughed at such a compliment.
“Would you not like Nicol to say fine things like that?” Robbie teased her; and Peter told Finn Learson, “Well, we can hardly refuse it on those terms!”
And so it was settled. Elspeth stood the coin on its edge like an ornament on the mantelpiece; and there it stayed, its smooth surface glittering in the light of the kollie. Janet made up a proper bed for Finn Learson in the barn that was built on to the gable wall of the but end; and he also stayed, to help Peter with all the work that had to be done before the haaf.