THE DOUBLE ALIBI 147 



famil}^, indeed, were quite devoid of superstition 

 and in this respect ver)- unlike the northern 

 Highlanders. However, the fallen cottage had 

 nothing to do with my own little adventure in 

 Glen Aline, and I mention it merely as the most 

 notable of the tiny ruins which attest the presence, 

 in the past, of a larger population. One cannot 

 marvel that the people ' flitted ' from the moors 

 and morasses of Glen Aline into less melancholy 

 neighbourhoods. The very sheep seemed scarcer 

 here than elsewhere ; grouse-disease had de^■as- 

 tated the moors, sportsmen consequentl}- did not 

 visit them ; and only a few barren pairs, with 

 crow-picked skeletons of dead birds in the heather 

 now and then, showed that the shootings had once 

 perhaps been marketable. My shepherd's cottage 

 was four miles from the little-travelled road to 

 Dalmellington ; long bad miles they were, across 

 bog and heather. Consequently I seldom saw any 

 face of man, except in or about the cottage. My 

 work went on rapidly enough in such an un- 

 disturbed life. Empires might fall, parties might 

 break like bursting shells, and banks might break 



