'Where the hell have you been ?' he asked.

'The weather's blowing up dirty and the old man's mad to get off.

Didn't you get your legs stretched enough this afternoon ?' I explained humbly that I had been to the schoolmaster to get something to read, and produced my dingy red volumes.

At that his brow cleared.

I could see that his suspicions were set at rest.
We left Colonsay about six in the evening with the sky behind us banking for a storm, and the hills of Jura to starboard an angry purple.