SEPTEMBER 221 



shook it out of its folds wrinkled, shabby, sub-fuse 

 it certainly looked a mean enough article. ' Full value, 

 sir ! ' was his laconic comment as he handed it across 

 the counter in exchange for the ransom of five shillings, 

 which I paid with a light heart. 



This morning, then, despite the snow, I trusted to the 

 aqua-scutum, and donned clothes of medium weight. 

 It was a right decision, as it turned out, for the clouds 

 dispersed, and the September sun shone out in the fore- 

 noon with quite enough force to make me sob as we 

 climbed along the steep face of Faich-chaol. It was 

 blowing a whole gale on the top, but nothing except 

 flaws and puffs reached us under the broad shoulder 

 of Carndearg. Rendered into English, Faich-chaol 

 signifies the narrow strath not so narrow, however, but 

 that the whole of Bloomsbury and Bayswater, with 

 Hyde Park and Knightsbridge thrown in as a depen- 

 dance, might be stowed upon its ample slopes. As it is, 

 once you have penetrated a mile into its recess and 

 shut out from view the stalkers' house at the entrance 

 with its patch of precarious corn and its peat-stack 

 beside the loch not a sign of human presence or 

 handiwork may be seen. Nothing but mountains, with 

 brown sides and hoary crests, and far below for we 

 have risen a thousand feet the loops and links of the 

 torrent, winding among countless little meadows of 

 vivid green. 



Oh, those blessed moments of respite, when your 

 stalker stops to spy ! Oh, the gratitude with which you 

 fling yourself beside him on the heather, trying your 



