Cold, Lone and Still

there were ashes in the grate, there was no fuel. We ate some of our emergency rations and I set light to the paper bags in which the food had been packed, but they only flared up and, for an instant, showed not only more of the primitive bareness of the room, but an opening in one of the inside walls.

‘We’ll explore this place before we leave,’ said Hera. ‘I believe it’s a ruined castle. All the same, I don’t much want to spend the night here. If only the mist would lift!’

There seemed nothing to do except settle down and wait, so this we did for what seemed a very long time. Then Hera, who (both of us having changed into dry clothes), had been stretched out on the floor with her head pillowed in my lap, sat up and said, ‘Oh, look, Comrie! The mist’s lifting. I can see the outline of the window. Let’s go.’

‘I’m as thirsty as Tantalus,’ I said. ‘Do you mind if I look around for a well or a tap or something?’

‘I’ll come with you.’

‘No need. I’ll take your mug and bring you a drink of water if I can find any which seems drinkable.’

‘No. I’ll come. I don’t much like this place.’

I went to the aperture and looked out. The mist had given place to steady, relentless rain, but there was daylight again and I found myself looking out on to a small, paved yard with a high, retaining wall. I could see the archway by which we had groped our way into the yard and when I put my head out of the window I could see another archway at the further side of the enclosure. Hera joined me and I made way so that she could look out.

‘Yes, we must be in the ruins of a castle,’ she said. ‘That means we are miles off our track. There is no mention of castle ruins in the brochure, is there?’

‘Not so far as I know. It’s probably the remains of one of General Wade’s little forts.’

‘How far do you think we walked after we left Bridge of Orchy?’ she asked.

‘Difficult to say, but, what with the mist and the rough road, probably not as far as it seemed.’

We turned away from the window and went through the doorway into a room which was better lighted than the one we had left, for it had only three walls. In the angle of two of these there was a stair. I had my torch with me, so I shone it, but it lighted only a few of the stone steps before the turn of the spiral hid the next part of the flight.

‘That looks exciting,’ said Hera.

‘You don’t go up there,’ I said. ‘It could be unsafe. Let’s try through here.’ There was a massive nail-studded door in the staircase wall. I pushed it open. Hera peered in.

‘But it’s pitch-dark,’ she said.

‘It must be the passage which led to the kitchen. This must be the entrance hall that we’re in and there will be a pump in the kitchen, I expect,’ I told her cheerfully.

We never carried drinks in our rucksacks because of the extra weight, so all we had had to quench our thirst was a half-pound bag of cherries with which we had finished our recent meal. I advanced into the opening and shone my torch so that the beam was straight ahead of me.

‘No wonder it’s dark in here,’ I said. ‘It’s blocked at the other end.’ It was as I said the words that I fell over the dead man who was sprawled across the passage.

‘Change back into your other clothes as quickly as you can,’ I said, when I had hustled Hera back to the room into which we had climbed. ‘We don’t want to get these togs soaked as well, and it’s pouring with rain outside.’

‘Why the hurry? What’s the matter? Couldn’t you get the blocked end of the passage open?’ she asked, understandably surprised by the force I had used to get her back into the other room.

‘I didn’t try. We’ve got to get away from here as quickly as ever we can. Don’t ask questions. Just get changed.’

‘You’ve got to tell me why. Did you see a ghost in the passage? — or what?’

‘Not a ghost, although there might be one in the future. There’s a dead man in there. I kicked him. Now for heaven’s sake shut up and get changed. There’s no point in getting two sets of clothes soaked through.’

Shivering with distaste, we climbed into our damp trousers and gave our anoraks, which were waterproof, a final shake before we put them on. ‘Now let’s have a good look round and make sure we haven’t left any traces to show that we were here,’ I said.

‘But why? The police will have to be told about — about him.’

‘Not on your life! We only found the body by the merest accident. It is no business of ours if people get themselves killed in ruined forts and I’m damned if I’m going to get myself mixed up with Scottish law and procurator fiscals and all the rest of it. What we’ve got to do is to step it out as soon as we leave here and trust to luck that we can find either Bridge of Orchy or Inveroran before dark. The mist is excuse enough if we get there late. We’ve got to alibi ourselves, don’t you see?’

‘But why? And why did you drag me away from the passage like that? I wouldn’t have minded seeing a corpse.’

‘We’ll go through that opening in the hall where the wall’s gone. It will be easier than scrambling through that window again,’ I said. ‘I’ll tell you more later. Come on! Come on!’ So we passed through another, smaller yard which was strewn with fallen masonry, crossed into the first yard and so out of the precincts by the postern door. The road was plain enough to follow. We headed on to it and I set a cracking pace as we left the ruins behind us.

‘Oh, do slow down a bit,’ said Hera, after about the first half-mile. ‘We’re walking as though the Devil himself is behind us.’

‘Who knows that he isn’t?’ I said, slackening the pace; and then I gave her the bad news. ‘The dead man was Carbridge,’ I said, ‘and he wasn’t merely dead; he’d been murdered. That’s why I hauled you away before you saw