The Argosy — page 336: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

317 THE MAN FROM C——. << C*COTS-MIN! Edinburry Courant ! Glasgy Herald !” Truly the land o’ cakes is reached at last, as these melodious cries inform us. We stretched ourselves after the stiffening process of a night journey, enlivened by one brief and dazzling break when we were sleepiest ; a ten minutes’ respite at a station where wide-awake young ladies preside over cups of coffee and other mixtures less approved by the Blue Ribbon Army, in brilliant gas-light; and we drowsily swallow something, regarding these Hebes of the night as if they had been performing in one of the Christmas pantomimes of our youthful days, where even the brightest fairy became indistinct through the merciful mist of sleep. Tickets were an unremembered evil as we rolled into the station at Edinburgh, for the terrific responsibility of those bits of pasteboard had been taken off our minds some thirty miles away, and we were free to land with our traps, and partake of an ‘‘ Express” breakfast at two shillings and sixpence. I was hailed by a cordial Scotch voice when half way through my meal. ‘‘E-h, now, this is a good sight, Goring! You're going further North, of course ?” “Yes, presently. I’m only taking a pleasure ramble.” “Then don’t spoil it by sticking in Edinburgh, for the heat is unbearable, and our American cousins have filled the hotels, demo- ralised the waiters by large tips, and are now busy buying pieces of hot woollen tartan, and imaginary heraldic devices in silver, as trophies to take home. Come on to Blankshire to-day.” * Let a fellow breathe, Christie!” I pleaded. “You can’t, if you stay here,” persisted the energetic Scotchman ; ** and it’s only an hour or two more of misery, and you'll find yourself in a snug inn beside a loch that it almost cools one to remember.” ‘“‘T’m not so very hot,” I ventured to remark, for the early morning air was fresh to a Londoner. “You're as obstinate as ever, I see,” said Christie, complacently. My eyes were lifted in mild rebuke, for if during all my life I ever met a pig-headed fellow at an argument, my once fellow-student was the man. I was not sufficiently refreshed to argue with him then, however, so acquiesced in all his arrangements, and soon we were on our way to the inn and loch so appreciated by my friend. A day or two convinced me that we had hit upon a pleasant spot ; and the landlady of the inn, an active industrious body, looked after our bodily comfort to admiration. Christie had several times visited the inn, and agreed with all I could say in its praise. CoOnniiclooolxs (C(O)