Death of an Outsider Read Online Free Page A

in the main street,’ said Hamish.
    ‘No, you wouldn’t,’ said Mackay. ‘Estate agents are regarded with suspicion. My office is on the other side of the loch, among the council houses.’
    ‘You can’t do much business in this part of Sutherland,’ said Hamish, watching as the estate agent lit a cigarette with a gold Dunhill lighter.
    ‘Oh, it would surprise you, Macbeth. Do you know Baran Castle?’
    ‘Aye, it’s that big place over to the west. Bought by an American last year.’
    ‘Well, I sold that,’ said Mackay proudly. ‘It’s not the locals who give me the business, but the foreigners and expatriots. I sold that castle for over a million pounds. And Kringstein, the local big cheese, bought Strachan House and the estates from me as well. So, how’s crime getting on in Cnothan?’
    ‘I have the case of witchcraft already,’ said Hamish.
    ‘The haunting of the Mainwarings? Someone wants that pillock out of here and I can’t blame them. Stuck-up bastard.’
    ‘He hasn’t crossed you, has he?’
    ‘I thought he meant to,’ said Mackay with a grin. ‘He’s bought two more houses and crofts outside town. Why, nobody knows. He uses the crofts, but the houses just stand empty. His own place is decrofted, and he got the land at the other two decrofted as well. That would be about six years ago. I thought he was going to compete with me by putting them on the market, but not him. Crofts are a pain in the neck to an estate agent anyway.’
    There was a short silence while both contemplated the peculiarities of crofting. The word ‘croft’ comes from the Gaelic coirtean , meaning a small enclosed field. In early times in the crofting counties of Shetland, Orkney, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, Inverness, and Argyll, there was a belief that lengthy tenancy gave right to a ‘kindness’, or permanency of settlement. But the Highland Clearances of the last century, when the crofters were driven off their hill farms to turn Sutherland into one large sheep ranch, had caused bitter hardship. The Crofting Act was passed to ensure security of tenure; this ended landlord absolutism. Once a crofter had tenancy of his croft or hill farm, he could be sure of no interference from the landlord and he no longer had any fear of being driven off. The crofter could also get the land decrofted – that is, buy it from the landowner at a reasonable price – but few crofters did this. Most were fearful of change, preferring to hang on to their small uneconomical croft units and collect the government grants. Sometimes unscrupulous estate agents let their clients who were buying an old croft house as a holiday home believe that the croft land went along with it. This practice left the buyers to find out for themselves that crofting land must be worked all the year round or the tenancy is refused by the Crofters Commission, and the assignation of the croft can be blocked by the neighbours anyway, who put up objections to any incomer simply as a matter of habit.
    Hamish broke the silence first. ‘Was there no objection to him getting the other two crofts when he had one already?’ he asked.
    ‘People didn’t dislike him as much then as they do now. The two crofts are adjoining the one he inherited from his aunt. But they’re surrounded by moors for miles. There are no other crofters near enough to him to put up a fight. Most of the crofts are to the other side of Cnothan. Besides, it’s happening all over. Some of these crofters have enough land to make up a good-sized farm. Of course, unlike Mainwaring, they don’t bother decrofting it, for they’re afraid of losing the government grants if they do.’
    ‘And no objection from the landowner?’
    ‘Kringstein. Couldn’t care less. You know he hardly gets any rents to speak of from the croft land. Besides, the crofter has more power in the matter than the landowner. The land-owner’s got to sell to the crofter if asked and at a ridiculously low price,