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at Crianlarich is the last one on The Way until he gets to Fort William.’
    ‘He talked of camping and how much time they would save that way because they would be striking camp at the crack of dawn each day. I’m thinking we delayed the rest of them an unco’ time on Inchcailloch and he is impatient to be pushing on. Ye’ll mind ye of the lassies Green and Parks?‘ said Perth.
    ‘Would those be Rhoda and Tansy?’ I asked.
    ‘The same. They canna thole yon man Carbridge, I’ll be thinking, and they are to leave the rest of us and take to the train, but whether they will then go on to Fort William I dinna ken.’
    ‘When did they leave the party?’
    ‘They are bookit in at Crianlarich the night, sensible lassies, so we’ll meet up wi’ them there.’
    ‘We’ll meet them there, too, and you and the students, of course.’
    ‘Aye. We can do wi’ a bed the night, for we shall be into the hills the morn, and that may be hard going for the lassies, wi’ the digging and scraping and all.’
    ‘Does that mean you will spend more than tomorrow prospecting around these parts?’
    ‘We’re biding three nights. The students are awfu’ keen and we’re a wee thing weary o’yon man Carbridge and his haverings.’
    ‘We soon got bored with him, too. I don’t know much about geology, so what are the students actually looking for in these parts?’
    ‘We didna let on to the rest of them, but you and Miss Camden are sensible bodies, so I’ll tell ye. Ye’ll mind ye of a theory that, awa’ back in time, the geography of the world was vastly different from the way it is today? Well, what these laddies and lassies are after is to match the American dinosaurs wi’ bones found over on this side. There is muckle talk o’ the Cretaceous period and its giant sauropods — ’
    ‘Titanosaurus from Argentina,’ I said. ‘Go back to the Jurassic and we get Brachiosaurus, who was also four-footed, but during the Cretaceous time we also get Tyrannosaurus. He seems to have walked upright on massive hind legs and his forelegs were tiny and can’t have been of much use for any practical purpose. The Americans found a good specimen of this intimidating chap in Montana, I believe, and the Russians found another one in Mongolia.’
    ‘I thought ye kenned nothing about geology.’
    ‘Oh, everybody is interested in dinosaurs.’ We wished the working party luck again, said we would see them at the hostel supper and that we were leaving after next morning’s breakfast.
    ‘We must get provisions in Crianlarich if we are going to take a short cut across country,’ said Hera, when we came in sight of the hostel.
    ‘There are not going to be any short cuts. It’s crazy to think of such a thing,’ I said in my firmest tones.
    ‘We shall see,’ she said again, putting out her tongue at me.
    The hostel was in a turning off the Tarbet-Crianlarich road and, further on, the turning led to the road between Tyndrum and Killin. A disused railway line was just beyond it.
    The hostel itself was described by Hera as quaint. It was in two parts. One part was raised above the ground on piers. The entrance was up some steps to a building just behind the other. There were sixty-four beds, a members’ kitchen and a hostel store, but meals were not provided, so that conditioned our shopping. We went back with the food for the next day, but bought our supper from the hostel shop.
    On enquiry of the warden at the hostel we learned that although Carbridge and his party had not cancelled their booking, they had not yet arrived. Perth and the students, as they had told us, were booked in for three nights. The office girls were booked in, too, but did not turn up, so we assumed that they had decided to take the train straightaway and we did not expect to see them again unless they were at the hostel in Fort William when we arrived there.
    It looked as though Carbridge’s party had been reduced to four, himself and Todd and the brother and sister