IN THE HIGHLANDS 135 



purpose, 1 got some beaters to drive the east end of Glas 

 Leitir wood, where Hector said the stag was seen almost 

 every day, though he hid himself in a jungle whenever 

 disturbed, but whereabouts exactly no one ever could 

 tell. I gave Gill on a leash to the forester, old Duncan 

 — ^whoever could see or walk or stalk better than he, 

 though then past seventy ? — and went out on Loch 

 Maree in a boat, sure that on such a lovely, clear, calm 

 day a hare could not move in front of the beaters without 

 our marking it. But the beaters went carefully through 

 the wood without seeing the stag, though they found his 

 bed in a jungle-hole. It was beaten as smooth as if done 

 with hammers and coated with his cast hair, so he had 

 been there since spring. 



" That was disappointing, but Duncan waved for us 

 to come on shore and come up to him, and there was he, 

 nearly pulled in pieces by Gill raving to follow some 

 scent. Gill never gave tongue in any circumstances. 

 Of course we followed Gill, wondering why on earth he 

 was leading us to an almost perpendicular wall of rock 

 down the centre of which ran a small ravine, its bed 

 covered with red gravel that had been washed from the 

 top to the bottom by heavy floods. Up this ravine Gill 

 dragged Duncan, and we followed on our hands and feet 

 till, after about a hundred yards, we emerged on to a 

 flat peat moss, where Gill made us ashamed of having 

 doubted his nose, for there were the quite fresh marks 

 of a big three-footed stag, so we drew breath and opened 

 eyes all around. 



** Nothing visible, but from the lie of the tracks we 

 knew our friend must have made for the deep burn half 



