he gets to a place that smells as good as this. Why in hell do we
ever get messed up in those stone and lime cages? I reckon some
day I'll pull my freight for a clean location and settle down there
and make little poems. This place would about content me. And
there's a spot out in California in the Coast ranges that I've been
keeping my eye on,' The odd thing was that I believe he meant it.
His ugly face was lit up with a serious delight.

He told me he had taken this voyage before, so I got out Baddely
and asked for advice. 'I can't spend too much time on holidaying,' I
told him, 'and I want to see all the beauty spots. But the best of
them seem to be in the area that this fool British Government
won't let you into without a passport. I suppose I shall have to
leave you at Oban.'

'Too bad,' he said sympathetically. 'Well, they tell me there's
some pretty sights round Oban.' And he thumbed the guide-book
and began to read about Glencoe.

I said that was not my purpose, and pitched him a yarn about
Prince Charlie and how my mother's great-grandfather had played
some kind of part in that show. I told him I wanted to see the place
where the Prince landed and where he left for France. 'So far as I
can make out that won't take me into the passport country, but I'll
have to do a bit of footslogging. Well, I'm used to padding the
hoof. I must get the captain to put me off in Morvern, and then I
can foot it round the top of Lochiel and get back to Oban through
Appin. How's that for a holiday trek?'

He gave the scheme his approval. 'But if it was me, Mr Brand, I