anner, forced to go, but walked on, musing on the
way women had recently meddled with his affairs. To begin with, Carmen
had given him the troublesome packet, then it was largely for Alice
Featherstone's sake he had embarked on a fresh adventure, and now the
girl in the tea-room had warned him to leave the town. It was a
privilege to help Alice, but the others' interference was, so to speak,
superfluous. A man could devote himself to pleasing one woman, but one
was enough.

After a few minutes he stopped and looked into a shop window as a man
passed a neighboring lamp. It was Daly and the fellow moved slowly,
although Foster did not think he had seen him yet. He would know very
soon and for a moment or two he felt his heart beat, but when he looked
round Daly had passed. Foster followed and saw him enter the tea-room.
This was disturbing, although Foster remembered that he had told nobody
he was going there. He decided to leave Edinburgh as soon as he could
next morning and bought a map of southern Scotland on his way back to
the hotel.

After dinner, he sat down in the smoking-room near a man to whom he had
once or twice spoken. The latter was a red-faced, keen-eyed old
fellow, and looked like a small country laird.

"I've come over to see Scotland and have been long enough in the
capital," he said. "After all, you can't judge a country by its towns.
What would you advise?"

"It depends upon what ye want to see?" the man replied.

"I think I'd like the moors and hills. I get enough of industrial
activity in Ontario, and would sooner hear the grouse and the
black-cock than shipyard hammers. Then I'd prefer to take my time and
go on foot."

His companion nodded approval. "Ye have sense. Are ye a good walker?"

"I have walked three hundred miles through pretty rough country and
dragged my belongings on a hand-sledge."

"Then I think I can tell ye how to see rugged Scotland, for the country
has two different sides. Ye can take your choice, but ye cannot see
both at once. I could send ye by main roads, where the tourists'
motors run, to the show-places, where ye would stay at smart hotels,
with Swiss and London waiters, and learn as much o' Scottish character
as ye would in Lucerne or the Strand."

"I don't think that is quite what I want. Besides, I haven't much time
and would sooner keep to the south."

"Then ye'll take the high ground and go by tracks the moss-troopers
rode, winding up the wa