"And it will not be the first time I have heard of
such cantrips."
And he told us of a man named Willie Reoch, a fisherman, who was
preserved from the great Bore of Papa Westray in some such way.
Willie Reoch and three other fishers were away at the saith
fishing, and when their boat was driven by the wind near to the
Bore, they were drawn under by the whirling current and swamped.
Reoch had round his neck a charm which Bessie Millie, the witch,
had given to him, and so was the only one saved.
"Na, na," continued my father, "I dinna doot there will be
something wondersome in the stone; and if any person would have
such a thing, who would it be but the Norseman?"
Thus did I become convinced in my mind that, by the possession of
that little gold-encircled stone, I bore a charmed life.
That night I lay with my precious talisman under my pillow. I
thought of the events of the afternoon, and, remembering my fight
with Tom Kinlay, attributed my victory over him to the influence
which that talisman, then in my pocket, had already begun to work.
I tried to imagine what kind of adventures had befallen the old
viking whose bones we had disturbed, and wondered if I should ever
encounter any similar perils. My opportunities of adventure were
fewer than his could have been; but I determined to give my full
trust to the mysterious aid in which Jarl Haffling had trusted in
the ancient days.
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