When I stopped the car to offer the man a lift, he seemed hesitant to accept. There was a haunted look in his eyes, and I almost had second thoughts about my offer. However, he put his case on the empty back seat and made himself comfortable in the passenger seat. "Seat belt please", I said to him before I was prepared to move off. After a moment's hesitation, he reached round and clipped the buckle into place. "You can drop me off at the Barvas Inn", the man said. His face was gaunt, and his dark blue great coat stained with faint, white blotches. "I'm going up towards Ness", I said. "It's OK," he replied politely. "I know people in the village there that will put me up". For a minute or two, we continued in silence, whilst I coasted the car along the road at a steady 50 mph. "I'm just going to join friends for Hogmanay", I remarked casually. The man did not reply, other than to briefly nod when I glanced to my left.
I was glad when we finally reached the crossroads at Barvas and the man left my vehicle. The day had been dry, but his coat left nice, wet stains on the back of the chair he had been sitting on. As I pulled round the corner to head up the road through Barvas, something attracted my attention. I pulled into the dark precinct of the Barvas Inn, and switched on the light above the rear-view mirror.
A couple of fronds of seaweed lay on the footwell where my passenger had just been sitting. My hand touched the seatback, which was wet, and it was salty dampness. The man was still standing at the fork in the road, and I alighted from my vehicle. As I approached him, he was illuminated in the light of the streetlamp. Seaweed was draped round his shoulders, and round his feet, something I had not noticed when he stepped into the vehicle on the moor. Another car came down the road from the direction of Stornoway, but it no longer illuminated the man. He had disappeared.
"Oh, you haven't heard about that?" The old man sat by the peatfire, quietly filling his pipe. The television played in the background, sound almost fully turned down. "Every Hogmanay, this ghost image of a sailor is seen on the Barvas Moor, just after dusk. Somebody always gives him a lift, and finds only seaweed after the journey. They say it is one of the men of the Iolaire".