SALMON-S PEARING 175 



left them ; and as the bright still weather effec- 

 tually negatived all propositions of going after 

 grouse or taking a cast with a fly in any of the 

 Upper Pools, the suggestion of Hugh Koss who 

 had become unusually keen after his triumph of 

 the morning, to rest till the evening and then make 

 a night of it with the spear at the mouth of the 

 river Arkail, was unanimously adopted. There was 

 a good thirteen miles' walk over the hill between 

 the lodge and the intended scene of the night's 

 operation, but our hardy young sportsmen regarded 

 that only so far as to order their dinner at an 

 earlier hour than usual, so as to start in time in the 

 evening, and employed the intervening period in 

 tying up bundles of fir-splinters to make torches, 

 and in providing themselves with dry suits of cloth- 

 ing, after the wetting they had just received. 



Shortly before seven o'clock they were ready to 

 start, and having left a note for Marston, who had 

 not yet returned from the hill, they set out, follow- 

 ing Hugh Ross in single file, as he led the way over 

 the darkening moor. All were too well accustomed 

 to the work to come to much grief over the broken 

 ground, beyond an occasional stumble or sudden fall 

 as the foot slipped into an unseen hole in the moss; 

 and before long the autumn moon rose -full and 

 bright to light their way, promising an idle time of 



