30 CHAPTER IV. 



Then to the lunch which, praise be, was good. Sandwiches of fresh 

 bread and sweet butter, cold breast of grouse, scones spread with rasp- 

 berry jam, sponge cake with raisins, and last? but lisp it not least, a 

 Perier waterbottle full of Scotch whiskey. The men sat about twenty 

 feet from me in the partial shelter of another hag and discussed a 

 frugal lunch which they drew from their pockets. 



A habit acquired of old when the hills had called me, asserted itself, 

 and I ate and drank sparingly. Finished, I called Donald to me and 

 gave him what was left, the larger part of my lunch, and then with 

 numbed fingers I got out the wet pipe and damp tobacco. Fortunately 

 my pouch was rubber and only a little water had trickled through its 

 upper opening, and with matches taken from a dilapidated box I 

 managed after many efforts to get a light 



The reviving effects of the food and the tobacco were soon apparent, 

 and in fifteen minutes or so I called to Donald that I was ready to 

 go on whenever he was. He came to my side then and pointing over 

 my head into the wind, which swirled and shrilled past us, half- 

 whispered : "There's a goot staug over yon, sir. I'm thinkin' we'll be 

 stalkin' him," to which I responded, "Whatever you say, Donald." 



And so straight into the wind, while the rain blurred my shooting 

 glasses, we went for the (to me) invisible stag. For a quarter of a 

 mile we went, for half a mile, three-quarters, a mile. Much of this 

 time my leader was bending low, half doubled to the ground. I did 

 the same. We took advantage of cover. We followed up burns, 

 sometimes wading them, sometimes stepping from stone to stone. At 

 last we passed the full width of the lower ground and came to the 

 flank of the mountain upon whose top we had earlier stood, but beyond 

 the place of first climbing. 



Here instead of a grassy slope were rocky faces, some of them 

 almost perpendicular, where the only way up was by clinging to crev- 

 ices and along cracks. Without pause or explanation Donald started 

 up. I after him, the gillie following me as always. And now came 

 a truly heart-breaking climb, while the wind whipping around the 

 shoulder of the steep faces threatened to throw us bodily into the abyss 

 below, which gradually became more and more of an abyss as we moved 

 higher. 



