CHAPTER II 
T was late when we mad^ our way 
back to our Hall ; the only people 
afloat were two soldiers, feeling 
their way to barracks, and the 
night policeman. Of course we 
had forgotten our latch-keys, so 
we had to pelt the windows till a 
good professor wakened from the 
dreams of his youth, and threw 
down his key wrapped in paper. 
There was still ^ome more packing 
and writing to do, so there was no time for sleep, and 
when the sun rose we were working away, roping, 
strapping, and hauling our baggage down the spiral 
staircase. 
It was such a beautiful September morning that we felt 
half sorry to leave Edinburgh. Princes Street and the 
houses of the new town lay beneath us, still asleep in the 
violet shadow of the old town, and over in Fife the hills 
were just touched with the level morning rays ; on the 
Firth the sails of a ship caught the light and gleamed 
white as a sea-gull's wing, and the grey water changed 
to vivid, sparkling blue. Beyond the blue rolling pine- 
14 
