The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

676
The Highland Monthly.
had saved the half of its contents for the purpose of regaling
Macdougall. I now conferred it on Swan. He examined
the outside appearance of it thoughtfully for a few seconds,
then gave the contents his undivided attention for as many
more. Returning the empty, he stated that " he thought he
could make it all right with Sam."
Who on earth was Sam ? What fresh complication
was this ? Was it the whisky or me that had to be made
" all right." Certainly, so far as I was concerned, I was all
wrong.
Sam, it transpired, was the engine driver, and as the
ukase had gone out that no one was allowed to travel on
the line without an official " pass," my condition would not
have been in the least mended by the advent of the engine,
had I not secured the assistance of Swan.
The engine-driver, to begin with, was adamant. He had
his orders. He did not care " a rap " about Macdougall. It
wasn't his " look out " if I were left to decay. Finally,
however, after whispered consultation between him and
Swan, I was invited to *' jump in."
I jumped in.
The journey down was delightful. I had a cosy nook
beside the furnace, and I could see round me on all sides.
The scenery, when we came to Loch Treig, was simply
magnificent. The loch lies, some ten miles long by less
than one mile wide, at the foot of some of the grandest hills
I had ever seen ; afterwards the scenery got less interesting
for a mile or two. Sam and his assistant had their hands
full looking out for obstructions, putting on the drag in
.steep parts and slowing as much as they could, then
letting it out gradually as the gradient grew less steep and
when the track could be seen for any distance. Sam, it
transpired, had been out at the Suakin and Berber Railway
in Egypt. Interrogated as to his opinion of the scheme
averred that, supposing it finished, " you would require a
regiment to keep the sand off it and another regiment to
protect that regiment from the hordes which infest the
whole countrw"