nd after dinner I took on the father
at billiards. Then we settled in the smoking-room, and I laid myself
out to entertain the pair. The result was that they would have me stay
a week, but I spoke of the shortness of my leave, and said I must get
on to the railway and then back to Fort William for my luggage.

So I spent that night between clean sheets, and ate a Christian
breakfast, and was given my host's car to set me a bit on the road. I
dismissed it after half a dozen miles, and, following the map, struck
over the hills to the west. About midday I topped a ridge, and beheld
the Sound of Sleat shining beneath me. There were other things in the
landscape. In the valley on the right a long goods train was crawling
on the Mallaig railway. And across the strip of sea, like some fortress
of the old gods, rose the dark bastions and turrets of the hills of
Skye.

CHAPTER SIX

The Skirts of the Coolin

Obviously I must keep away from the railway. If the police were after
me in Morvern, that line would be warned, for it was a barrier I must
cross if I were to go farther north. I observed from the map that it
turned up the coast, and concluded that the place for me to make for
was the shore south of that turn, where Heaven might send me some luck
in the boat line. For I was pretty certain that every porter and
station-master on that tin-pot outfit was anxious to make better
acquaintance with my humble self.

I lunched off the sandwiches the Broadburys had given me, and in the
bright afternoon made my way down the hill, crossed at the foot of a
small fresh-water lochan, and pursued the issuing stream through
midge-infested woods of hazels to its junction with the sea. It was
rough going, but very pleasant, and I fell into the same mood of idle
contentment that I had enjoyed the previous morning. I never met a
soul. Sometimes a roe deer broke out of the covert, or an old blackcock
startled me with his scolding. The place was bright with heather, still
in its first bloom, and smelt better than the myrrh of Arabia. It was a
blessed glen, and I was as happy as a king, till I began to feel the
coming of hunger, and reflected that the Lord alone knew when I might
get a meal. I had still some chocolate and biscuits, but I wanted
something substantial.

The distance was greater than I thought, and it was already twilight
when I reached the coast. The shore was open and desolate--great banks
of pebbles to which straggled al