eighbour on
the hill-top.

He was about two hundred yards off, just reaching the crest, and,
unlike me, walking quite openly. His eyes were on Ranna, so he did not
notice me, but from my cover I scanned every line of him. He looked an
ordinary countryman, wearing badly cut, baggy knickerbockers of the
kind that gillies affect. He had a face like a Portuguese Jew, but I
had seen that type before among people with Highland names; they might
be Jews or not, but they could speak Gaelic. Presently he disappeared.
He had followed my example and selected a hiding-place.

It was a clear, hot day, but very pleasant in that airy place. Good
scents came up from the sea, the heather was warm and fragrant, bees
droned about, and stray seagulls swept the ridge with their wings. I
took a look now and then towards my neighbour, but he was deep in his
hidey-hole. Most of the time I kept my glasses on Ranna, and watched
the doings of the _Tobermory_. She was tied up at the jetty, but seemed
in no hurry to unload. I watched the captain disembark and walk up to a
house on the hillside. Then some idlers sauntered down towards her and
stood talking and smoking close to her side. The captain returned and
left again. A man with papers in his hand appeared, and a woman with
what looked like a telegram. The mate went ashore in his best clothes.
Then at last, after midday, Gresson appeared. He joined the captain at
the piermaster's office, and presently emerged on the other side of the
jetty where some small boats were beached. A man from the _Tobermory_
came in answer to his call, a boat was launched, and began to make its
way into the channel. Gresson sat in the stern, placidly eating his
luncheon.

I watched every detail of that crossing with some satisfaction that my
forecast was turning out right. About half-way across, Gresson took the
oars, but soon surrendered them to the _Tobermory_ man, and lit a pipe.
He got out a pair of binoculars and raked my hillside. I tried to see
if my neighbour was making any signal, but all was quiet. Presently the
boat was hid from me by the bulge of the hill, and I caught the sound
of her scraping on the beach.

Gresson was not a hill-walker like my neighbour. It took him the best
part of an hour to get to the top, and he reached it at a point not two
yards from my hiding-place. I could hear by his labouring breath that
he was very blown. He walked straight over the crest till he was out of
sight of Ran