54 ANGLING SKETCHES 



like broken sticks. The Captain was lying dead, 

 without his clothes, on the bed ; one man was dis- 

 covered at a distance, another near the Captain. 

 Then it was remembered that, at the same bothy a 

 month before, a shepherd lad had inquired for the 

 Captain, had walked with him for some time, and 

 that, on the officer's return, ' a mysterious anxiety 

 hung about him.' A fire had also been seen blaz- 

 ing on an opposite height, and when some of the 

 gillies went to the spot, ' there was no fire to be 

 seen.' On the day when the expedition had started, 

 the Captain was warned of the ill weather, but he 

 said ' he must go.' He was an unpopular man, and 

 was accused of getting money by procuring recruits 

 from the Highlands, often by cruel means. ' Our in- 

 former told us nothing more ; he neither told us his 

 own opinion, nor that of the country, but left it to 

 our own notions of the manner in which good and 

 evil is rewarded in this life to suggest the author of 

 the miserable event. He seemed impressed with 

 superstitious awe on the subject, and said, " There 

 \vas na the like seen in a' Scotland." The man is 



