THE DOUBLE ALIBI 147 



family, indeed, were quite devoid of superstition 

 and in this respect very unlike the northern 

 Highlanders. However, the fallen cottage had 

 nothing to do with my own little adventure in 

 Glen Aline, and I mention it merely as the most 

 notable of the tiny ruins which attest the presence, 

 in the past, of a larger population. One cannot 

 marvel that the people ' flitted ' from the moors 

 and morasses of Glen Aline into less melancholy 

 neighbourhoods. The very sheep seemed scarcer 

 here than elsewhere ; grouse-disease had devas- 

 tated the moors, sportsmen consequently did not 

 visit them ; and only a few barren pairs, with 

 crow-picked skeletons of dead birds in the heather 

 now and then, showed that the shootings had once 

 perhaps been marketable. My shepherd's cottage 

 was four miles from the little-travelled road to 

 Dalmellington ; long bad miles they were, across 

 bog and heather. Consequently I seldom saw any 

 face of man, except in or about the cottage. My 

 work went on rapidly enough in such an un- 

 disturbed life. Empires might fall, parties might 

 break like bursting shells, and banks might break 



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