84 CHAPTER XII. 



for the Lodge. I moved on at a merry clip, and while I regretted, 

 to be sure, the long stalk which had ended in a blank, I found the 

 day in retrospect not the least good of the many grand Highland 

 days I had had. 



It was quite dark, because the moon had not put in an appearance, 

 when crossing a large burn two miles from my destination, I had 

 what might easily have been a most serious mishap. The way of 

 crossing this particular stream was by stepping from one large stone 

 to another. The water was about three feet deep and it ran with 

 great swiftness. 



The stones, various heights above it as the stage of its flow varied, 

 were large, irregular shaped and generally protruding about two feet 

 from the surface. They would have offered a good enough foothold 

 for a hobnailed shoe had they not been so far apart. As it was, in 

 the very middle of the stream, there was a space of at least four feet 

 which had to be bridged by a step. 



I misjudged my distance in the dark at this long reach and though 

 my foot struck the rock in front it slipped and I had to spring with 

 all the force I could gather to the next rock, swinging forward my 

 other foot as I leaped. This foot, in turn, struck the object for 

 which it was intended, but it also slipped and I plunged headlong upon 

 the boulder-strewn bank of the stream. 



The points of contact were the end of my short arm and my right 

 knee. I thought I had broken both, but rubbing and what I could do 

 at the moment gave me reason to believe that I had not actually frac- 

 tured a bone. I got up and hobbled on. The further I went the 

 more easily I walked and I got to the Lodge with nothing more 

 than a perceptible limp and some uncomfortable pains from bruised 

 bones, but not otherwise the worse for wear. 



My knee was gaily colored in beautiful browns and purples and 

 puffed to perfection when I dressed the next morning, but I was con- 

 fident it would carry me through what was to be my last day's stalk 

 in the Highlands. 



