Page 98 - the-thirty-nine-steps

and red, and took the money at last without a thank you.
When I told him how much I owed him, he grunted some-
thing about ‘ae guid turn deservin’ anither’. You would have
thought from our leave-taking that we had parted in dis-
gust.
Hislop was a cheery soul, who chattered all the way over
the pass and down the sunny vale of Annan. I talked of Gal-
loway markets and sheep prices, and he made up his mind
I was a ‘pack-shepherd’ from those parts whatever that may
be. My plaid and my old hat, as I have said, gave me a fine
theatrical Scots look. But driving cattle is a mortally slow
job, and we took the better part of the day to cover a dozen
miles.
If I had not had such an anxious heart I would have
enjoyed that time. It was shining blue weather, with a con-
stantly changing prospect of brown hills and far green
meadows, and a continual sound of larks and curlews and
falling streams. But I had no mind for the summer, and lit-
tle for Hislop’s conversation, for as the fateful fifteenth of
June drew near I was overweighed with the hopeless diffi-
culties of my enterprise.
I got some dinner in a humble Moffat public-house, and
walked the two miles to the junction on the main line. The
night express for the south was not due till near midnight,
and to fill up the time I went up on the hillside and fell
asleep, for the walk had tired me. I all but slept too long, and
had to run to the station and catch the train with two min-
utes to spare. The feel of the hard third-class cushions and
the smell of stale tobacco cheered me up wonderfully. At

98 The Thirty-Nine Steps