“So they say. And now we’ll take the nets. ’Tis a heavy net that comes out black, as the sayin’ is. They’re heavy for sure, after this still night, an’ the wind southerly, an’ the pollack this way an’ that.”
“Well, now, that’s strange.”
“What is strange, Sheumas Maclean?”
“That you should say that thing.”
“And for why that?”
“Oh, just this. Silis had a dream the other night, she had. She dreamed she saw you standing alone on the Luath: and you were hauling hard a heavy net, so that the sweat ran down your face. And your face was dead-white pale, she said. An’ you hauled an’ you hauled. An’ someone beside you that she couldn’t see laughed an’ laughed: an’ …”
With a stifled oath, Isla broke in upon the speaker’s words:
“Why, man alive, you said he, the man, myself it is, was alone on the Luath.”
“Well, Silis saw no one but yourself, Isla Macleod.”
“But she heard some one beside me laughing an’ laughing.”