Part 4 (1/2)
”I'm a Raghery man myself. _Tha an Gaidhlig agad?_
”_Tha, go direach!_”
”So you've got the Gaidhlig too? Who are your people, wee laddie?”
”I'm a Campbell of Cushendhu.”
”For G.o.d's sake! you're no' a relation of Alan Campbell's, wha sailed with Sir John Franklin for the pole?”
”I'm his nephew.”
”I've sailed under your Uncle Alan. He's the heart o' corn. And so they're going to make a scholar out of you, like your Uncle Robin. Oh, well, oh, well. Would you like to come around with me and see the s.h.i.+ps?”
”I'd like fine to see the s.h.i.+ps.”
”You'll see all manner of s.h.i.+ps here. Square-riggers, fore-and-afters, hermaphrodites. You'll see Indiamen and packets from Boston. You'll see s.h.i.+ps that do be going to Germany, and some for the Mediterranean ports.
You'll see a whaler that's put in for repairs. You'll see fighting s.h.i.+ps. You'll see fishers of the Dogger Banks, and boats that go to Newfoundland, where the cod do feed. All manner of sloops and schooners, barkantines and brigs, but the bonniest of them all lies off Carrickfergus.”
”And who's she, Raghery man?”
”The _Antrim Maid_ is her nomination.”
”And do you sail her?”
”I sail in her, laddie. Sail and sail in her. Mine from truck to keelson she is, and I'm master of her. Father and mother and brother to her, and husband, too. I'm proud of her.” The Rathliner laughed. ”You may notice.”
”And why for shouldn't you be? She must be the grand boat surely, man who sailed with my Uncle Alan.”
-- 9
”Raghery man, you who've sailed the high seas and the low seas, did you ever put into an island that has great coolth to it and great suns.h.i.+ne, a town quiet as a mouse, a strip of sand like silver, the waves turning with a curl and chime?”
”Where did you hear tell of that island, wee laddie? Was it in the books you do be reading at school?”
”I saw it, and it dancing in the sun. From Slievenambanderg I saw it, and it over the waters of Moyle.”
The Rathliner sat on a mooring bitt on the quay and filled his pipe.
”I ken that island,” he said. ”I ken it well.”
”And what name is on it, Raghery man?”
”The name that's on it is Fiddlers' Green.”
”Were you ever there, Raghery man?” There was a sinking in wee Shane's heart.
”I was never there, laddie, never there. Oftentimes I thought I'd raised it, but it was never there, wee laddie, never there. There's men as says they've been there, but I could hardly believe them, though there's queer things past belief on the sea. There's a sea called Sarga.s.so, and if I told you half the things about it, you'd think me daft. And there's the ghost of s.h.i.+ps at sea, and that's past thinking.
And there's the great serpent, that I've seen with my own eyes....