1 The mysterious old man.

It had been fifteen years since he had moved to that little town by the sea. During all that time he had tried to stay away from the inhabitants. The first years he succeeded, in such a way that after his arrival he became a mystery to them. Unanswered questions like "Who was he?" or "Where did he come from?" inevitably gave rise to rumors. Several people said that he was an old privateer, others that he had been some important merchant from the capital who had come to an end, a few that he was a runaway murderer and some more argued that he was simply a bitter old man with no family.

He knew about the rumors. Every time he left his house, the one furthest from the center of town, he could notice how he was observed and how they whispered behind him. But he didn't care, in fact he preferred it to be so.