THE SALMON OF CLOOTIE'S HOLE. 339 



already raining np on the moors above, and seemed 

 likely to be soon doing the same thing below. But 

 though the rain was not quite to their taste (not that 

 they in the least minded getting wet), these two men 

 seemed tolerably satisfied with things, and had con- 

 tented faces. The place they were in had in the 

 gloomy morning rather a dour look. The river had 

 scooped out for itself a great semicircular piece of the 

 bank, and formed a big pool, wide, and black, and 

 very deep, in which, even in that high state of the 

 water, there Avas very little motion. On the farther 

 side the bank was steep and precipitous, but where 

 they were standing it shelved, and a wood of old 

 dark Scotch firs grew close to the water, so close in 

 some parts that it was difficult to fish it properly. 

 1 1 was a wild kind of place ; and no Avonder, con- 

 sidering Avho sometimes took up his abode there. 

 " Clootie's Hole " Avas its name, and any one in the 

 strath could tell you the reason. " "When the de\ r il 

 comes to Eoss-shire, wherever he may spend the day, 

 it's here he bides the night." That Avas what the 

 people said, and indeed it Avas true enough. For 

 though the dreadful being had not been seen for 

 many years, there were old men yet alive in the 

 neighbourhood who remembered hearing in their 

 youth from their fathers hoAV a man, Avho Avas coming 

 home from the still he Avorked up on the hills, and 

 Avho crossed the river just beloAv the pool, Avas found 

 in the morning Avith his head on the bank, and his 



