village, because they know that the elementary runner will also get a
chance of a run.

Yet even under these arrangements, I have found a beginner sitting
huddled in a corner of the railway carriage when we have started
before dawn for a big tour. "Where are you off to?" I said, thinking
he was out with a Guide. "With your party," was the reply. What could
I do? It is not easy to turn a person out of a train at 5.45 a.m. on
a cold morning. I said weakly, "Did you not see the notice which said
this was a run for 3rd-class runners only?" He said, "Yes, but I
thought I could keep up." So there he was, and we took him through and
though he was very slow uphill and kept us all back in this case, he
ran down without delaying us. People often put their own capacity
higher than do the people they want to run with and it is very
difficult to be tactful.

Again most people would not think it necessary to warn runners against
deserting their party. Yet they often do and it is not usually the
beginner who is the culprit here. Perhaps he cannot run quick enough
to get away! I shall always remember a run in charge of a tour when I
was with a lot of novices. Another experienced runner accompanied me
officially to help. I chose what I thought the easiest way to start,
and he wanted to try another route at the top and went off saying he
would join us below a wood. When we reached the part where I thought
we should rejoin, I waited and shouted, but he did not appear. So we
went on to another post where we had lunch, and then I began to get
anxious as this runner never turned up. Anything might have happened
to him. He might have gone over a rock or into a tree or even only
be tied up in one of those tangled falls when it is practically
impossible to extricate oneself. It was no good our trying to look for
him then, so after about two hours' delay, I took my party down to the
valley and the first person who met us in the village was our lost
companion. He chaffed us for being so late as he had run down very
quickly and had had his tea ages ago.

No party going beyond the Nursery slopes should consist of fewer than
three. One to go for help in case of need, the other to stay with the
third runner, who may need help. Needless to say, people who know the
mountains well, go off alone with impunity. When I asked one of these
lonely runners what would happen if he hurt himself and was benighted,
he told me he always carried sufficient morph