The next morning I packed a bag with some changes of clothing and a
collection of notebooks, and went up to town. The first thing I did was
to pay a visit to my solicitors. "I am about to travel," said I, "and I
wish to have all things settled in case any accident should happen to
me." So I arranged for the disposal of my property in case of death, and
added a codicil which puzzled the lawyers. If I did not return within
six months, communications were to be entered into with the shepherd at
the shieling of Farawa--post-town Allerfoot. If he could produce any
papers, they were to be put into the hands of certain friends,
published, and the cost charged to my estate. From my solicitors I went
to a gunmaker's in Regent Street and bought an ordinary six-chambered
revolver, feeling much as a man must feel who proposed to cross the
Atlantic in a skiff and purchased a small life-belt as a precaution.
I took the night express to the North, and, for a marvel, I slept. When
I awoke about four we were on the verge of Westmoreland, and stony hills
blocked the horizon. At first I hailed the mountain-land gladly; sleep
for the moment had caused forgetfulness of my terrors. But soon a turn
of the line brought me in full view of a heathery moor, running far to a
confusion of distant peaks. I remembered my mission and my fate, and if
ever condemned criminal felt a more bitter regret I pity his case. Why
should I alone among the millions of this happy isle be singled out as
the repository of a ghastly secret, and be cursed by a conscience which
would not let it rest?
I came to Allerfoot early in the forenoon, and got a trap to drive me up
the valley. It was a lowering grey day, hot and yet sunless. A sort of
heat-haze cloaked the hills, and every now and then a smurr of rain
would meet us on the road, and in a minute be over. I felt wretchedly
dispirited; and when at last the white-washed kirk of Allermuir came
into sight and the broken-backed bridge of Aller, man's eyes seemed to
have looked on no drearier scene since time began.
I ate what meal I could get, for, fears or no, I was voraciously hungry.
Then I asked the landlord to find me some man who would show me the road
to Farawa. I demanded company, not for protection--for what could two
men do against such brutish strength?--but to keep my mind from its own
thoughts.
The man looked at me anxiously.
"Are ye acquaint wi' the folks, then?" he asked.