The stranger did as the fishermen were in the habit of doing. He cut off the head, took out the entrails, collected the livers in a jug, and split open the fish. But he did all this so expertly and so quickly that the boatmen stood watching him with astonishment. When he had finished cleaning the fish, he took his thick fishing-gloves off his hands and told the man who rowed to clean them in the sea. He did as he was bidden, and gave them back to Ambrose again. But the stranger did not think that he had wrung the water thoroughly from them. He folded them together, therefore, and wrung them himself; but as he did this they came to pieces in his hands.
The crew, when they witnessed this fresh evidence of his extraordinary strength, began to feel some misgivings. They feared that the stranger could not be a real man, and they wondered what would happen when Anika came, whom they were expecting every minute, and who, perhaps, was not a little exasperated that they had failed to bring him their tribute.
Anika did not keep them long waiting, but came at once, striding along the beach towards them. He was a giant of a fellow, with a fierce appearance and with a long brown beard hanging down over his breast.
‘Hi! you men there!’ he shouted at once from a distance in a voice of thunder. ‘Why haven’t you brought me my tribute of fish to-day?’
The four men did not dare to utter a word. They stood silent with fear, and with their uncovered heads bowed down, and crossed themselves. Their strange companion did not take his hat off, but went a few paces towards Anika, and then demanded:
‘Who are you, and what do you want?’ [[35]]
‘Who am I, and what do I want?’
‘Yes, certainly.’
‘Don’t you know me?’
‘No, I don’t know you, and I have no wish to make your acquaintance. So you need not come any nearer. The best thing you can do is to take yourself off again, or you shall see——’