Now the man was, as many before him were, a stooped creature with a broken wing. Balanced on a stick he dodged through the sands. A young girl in an oilskin coat approached them. Jack saw a seal. He shouted to the young girl who was standing looking out at the Atlantic.

“Look,” he shouted, “at the seal.”

The girl followed his outstretched arm.

“The seal! The seal!” shouted Jack.

She looked out, but by then the seal had gone. She looked back at Jack and ran away.

“I fear,” said the old fellow, “that she thought you were shouting: ‘Look at the sea! Look at the sea!’”

“Oh,” said Jack.

The two men walked on.

“It’ll break before it gets any better.”

“Are you expecting a storm?” asked Jack in a neighbourly way.

The man stopped and swung his arm in a curve. “I carted this beach most of my youth. Do you see the stones? There were no stones.” He moved on. “There were no stones then. Only sand. We took away layers of sand for building purposes. That’s how the stones got there. That’s stopped now. The authorities put a stop to that.”

He halted. His black shoes sank into the sand.

“Only for I was pensioned off I wouldn’t be here. They don’t want you here. It’s the Famine mentality. If you are feeling bad they’d make you feel worse. In these parts the cuckoo mocks the corncrake.” He spat. “Once you start thinking for yourself there’s something wrong with you.”

“Where were you?”

“Down Clydebank for twenty-five years. I’d prefer to be there now. I should be in Scotland. Scotland has the best health service in the world. If you fall sick you’d get the same treatment as Prince Charlie. I know no one here now. But they know me.” He spat to the left. The wind blew across his bare red chest. “Neighbours of the presumptuous propensities!” He spat again to the left. “But I don’t know them.”

The old fellow laughed. Some specks of wet sand had blown about his trouser legs. He studied them with the tip of his stick. He laughed again and slung the bag on his back.

They took leave of each other in a slow fashion: waving and looking back and going on again.