Matilda Sabiston and he got what he wanted; but what
was then said no one knows, for ever since he has hated the Borsons,
root and branch, and his own wife and child have borne the weight of
it. That is not all."

"Tell me all, then; but make no more of it than it is worth."

"There is little need to do that. Before Nanna was strong again he
sold the house which Paul Borson had given to her as a marriage
present. He sold also all the plenishing, and whatever else he
could lay his hands on. Then he set sail; but there was little
space between two bad deeds, for no sooner was he home again than
he took the money Paul Borson had put in the bank for his daughter,
and when no one saw him--in the night-time--he slipped away with a
sound skin, the devil knows where he went to."

"Were there no men in Lerwick at that time?"

"Many men were in Lerwick--men, too, who never get to their feet
for nothing; and no man was so well hated as Nicol Sinclair. But
Nanna said: 'I have had sorrow enough. If you touch him you touch
me ten-fold. He has threatened me and the child with measureless
evil if I say this or that against anything he does.' And as every
one knows, when Nicol is angry the earth itself turns inside out
before him."

"I do not fear him a jot--not I!"

"If you had ever seen him swaggering and rolling from one day into
another, if you had ever seen him stroking his bare arms and peering
round with wicked eyes for some one to ease him of his temper, you
would not say such words."

"I will not call my words back for much more than that, and I will
follow up this quarrel."

"If you are foolish, you may do so; if you are wise, you will be
neither for nor against Nicol Sinclair. There is a wide and a safe
way between these two. Let me tell you, Nanna's life lies in it. I
have not yet told you all."

"Speak the last word, then."

"Think what cruel things a bad man can always do to a good woman;
all of them Nicol Sinclair has done to your cousin Nanna. Yes, it is
so. When she was too weak to hold her baby in her arms he bade her
'die, and make way for a better woman.' And one night he lured her
to the cliff-top, and then and there he quarreled with her; and men
think--yes, and women think so too--that he threw the child into
the water, and that Nanna leaped after it. That was the story in
every one's mouth."

"Was it true? Tell me that."

"There was more than guesswork to go on. Magnus Crawford took them
out of