210 AMID THE HIGH HILLS 
the North of Scotland, miles from any human 
habitation, without a scrap of food, with an empty 
flask, and soaked to the skin up to my waist 
through wading and standing in the burn, which 
was in flood. 
I decided to retrace my steps to the old ruins of 
the watcher's cottage from which we had started. 
Taking great care not to lose the path, I began 
to do this, shouting now and then but hearing 
no reply. I tried to think out why the men 
should not have been following me on this path 
on which I was now returning, and which ran 
beside a broad burn which was in spate. I then 
remembered that the path which I had been 
following across the forest before I came to the 
burn was almost at right angles both to the burn 
and the path I was now on, and it occurred to me 
that possibly the path which I ought to have 
taken lay straight across the burn, and that the 
men might have crossed the burn and gone in 
that direction. I had, I knew, been walking, as I 
always do on these occasions, very fast, and this 
made me think it not unlikely, especially as it was 
so dark, that the men had assumed that I had 
crossed the burn in front of them. Being careful 
not to lose the narrow track I was on in the 
