REMINISCENCES OE THE LEWS. 155 



alongside the burns. It was hard work, for 

 you had long distances to go, and you never 

 liked leaving a stag as long as there w^as a 

 chance, or daylight to see the sight of your 

 rifle ; and some eight or ten miles over the 

 muir in the dark to Diensten bothy was no joke. 

 Fortunately, the ground was soft, so you ran no 

 chance of breaking your legs among the rocks, 

 as you did at Aline, but you might be drowned 

 in a peat hole. Many a tramp had Sandie and 

 I, for he was my stalker, and a right good one 

 he was, for he had been brought up on the 

 ground. I remember once leaving a stag, a 

 good one, that I had wounded, and followed 

 till it was pitch dark, and we found ourselves 

 eleven miles from the bothy. It was as dark 

 as pitch, and how many times we rolled over 

 together — for we walked arm-in-arm — T don't 

 know. At last Sandie said, " Now we must 

 be near the last deep little burn, and we must 

 look out," when '' By gorra, you're in it ! " — as 

 delightful Lever's car-driver says to Jack 

 Hinton — and into the burn we went, sure 

 enough. Well, we picked ourselves up, and 

 fortunately it was for the last time, as we were 

 near home, which we reached about eleven. 

 We were ofi* before light next morning, for we 

 knew our stag would not go far ; and there we 



