Marcus made no reply, so Gloom answered for him.
“He has gone up to the house with a message to Anne-nic-Gilleasbuig.”
“And what will that message be?”
“That Mànus MacCodrum has sailed away from Eilanmore, and will not see her again.”
MacCodrum laughed. It was a low, ugly laugh.
“Sure, Gloom Achanna, you should be taking that feadan of yours and playing the Cod-hail-nan-Pairtean, for I’m thinkin’ the crabs are gathering about the rocks down below us, an’ laughing wi’ their claws.”
“Well, and that is a true thing,” Gloom replied slowly and quietly. “Yes, for sure I might, as you say, be playing the ’meeting of the Crabs.’ Perhaps,” he added, as by a sudden afterthought, “perhaps, though it is a calm night, you will be hearing the comh-thonn. The ‘Slapping of the Waves’ is a better thing to be hearing than the ’meeting of the Crabs.’”
“If I hear the comh-thonn it is not in the way you will be meaning, Gloom-mhic-Achanna. ’Tis not the ‘Up Sail and Good-bye’ they will be saying, but ‘Home wi’ the Bride.’”
Here Marcus intervened.
“Let us be having no more words, Mànus MacCodrum. The girl Anne is not for you. Gloom is to be her man. So get you hence. If you will be going quiet, it is quiet we will be. If you have your feet on this thing, then you will be having that too which I saw in the boat.”