THE DOUBLE ALIBI 151 



and ask the usual questions, ' What sport ? ' and 

 ' What flies ? ' But as soon as he observed me 

 coming he strode off across the heather. Un- 

 courteous as it seems, I felt so inquisitive that I 

 followed him. But he walked so rapidly, and was 

 so manifestly anxious to shake me off, that I gave 

 up the pursuit. Even if he were a poacher whose 

 conscience smote him for using salmon-roe, I was 

 not ' my brother's keeper,' nor anybody's keeper. 

 He might ' otter ' the loch, but how could I 

 prevent him ? 



It was no affair of mine, and yet where had I 

 seen him before? His gait his stoop, the carriage 

 of his head, all seemed familiar but a short- 

 sighted man is accustomed to this kind of puzzle : 

 he is always recognising the wrong person, when 

 he does not fail to recognise the right one. 



I am rather short-sighted, but science has its 

 resources. Two or three days after my encounter 

 with this very shy sportsman, I went again to Loch 

 Nan. But this time I took with me a strong field- 

 glass. As I neared the crest of the low heathen- 

 slope immediately above the loch, whence the 



