" Lionel said; and he got up and tried to shake his blood
into freer circulation; then he set out with his two companions for the
summit of Meall-Breac.

This steep ascent was fatiguing enough; but, at all events, it restored
some warmth to his body. He did not go quite to the top; he sat down on
a lichened stone, while Roderick proceeded to crawl, inch by inch, until
his head and glass were just over the crest of a certain knoll. A long
scrutiny followed; then the forester slowly disappeared--the gillie
following in his serpent-like track; and Lionel sat on in apathetic
patience, slowly getting chilled again. He asked himself what Nina
would say to him if she knew of these escapades. He held his back to the
wind until he was frozen that way; then he turned his face to the chill
blast, folding his arms across his chest. He took a sip from Percy
Lestrange's flask; but that was more for employment than anything else,
for he discovered there was no real warmth to be got that way. He
thought Roderick was never coming back from the top of the hill. He
would have started off down the ascent again, but that they might miss
him; besides, he might do something fatally wrong. So he sat on this
cold stone and shivered, and began to think of Kensal Green.

Suddenly he heard footsteps behind him; he turned and found the two men
coming towards him.

"Not a sign of anything, sir," was Roderick's report. "It's awfu' dark
and difficult to see, and the clouds are down all along Glen Bhoideach.
We'll just step along by the Corrie-nam-Miseag. They very often stop for
a while in the corrie when they're crossing over to Achnadruim."

Lionel was not sorry to be again in motion, and yet very soon he found
that motion was not an unmixed joy; for these two fellows, who were now
going down wind along the route they had come, and therefore walking
fearlessly, took enormously long strides and held straight on, no matter
what sort of ground they were covering. For the sake of his country, he
fought hard to keep up with them; he would not have them say they could
outwalk an Englishman--and an Englishman considerably younger than
either of them; but the way those two went over this rough and broken
land was most extraordinary. And it seemed so easy; they did not appear
to be putting forth any exertion; in spite of all he could do, he began
to lag a little; and so he thought he would mitigate their ardor by
engaging them in a little conversation.