The Loud Halo Page 22
‘Did she never get caught by the authorities?’
‘Not actually caught,’ I replied. ‘The customs man came out one day supposedly to investigate but really he was more keen to go fishing so of course someone obliged with a boat and a crew and they kept him out a good while longer than he intended. When he came ashore he told one of the crew: “Go and get a good dram for me from Janet’s aunt. Tell her I’m near freezin’ to death and just make her give it to you, whatever she says.” ’
‘And what happened?’
‘He got his dram all right but Janet’s aunt got such a fright she went straight out and dumped the still and the rest of the stuff down what’s reputed in Bruach to be a bottomless well, and she never attempted to make a drop of whisky again. The old folks have never really ceased to grumble about it. They say it was “good wild stuff” and only threepence a pint.’
‘You haven’t told me these stories before,’ grumbled my companion.
I smiled ‘My diaries are full of them,’ I confessed. ‘Life in Bruach was crammed with similar incidents. When I’m feeling at all gloomy in the future I shall get them out and read through them to cheer myself up.’
‘Why not write another book about them?’ my companion suggested.
‘No,’ I replied. ‘I don’t think I shall write another book about Bruach.’
The guard’s whistle shrilled long and loud. The engine blew out a triumphant hiss of pilfered steam. The train braced itself for me journey.
Copyright
First published in 1971 by Hutchinson & Co.
This edition published 2012 by Bello an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR Basingstoke and Oxford Associated companies throughout the world
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Copyright © Lillian Beckwith, 1964
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