Father had arranged for a warning system at the approaches to the glen, with women hanging out three items of white linen when Campbell and his gaugers were coming. The show of white in the glen alerted us the following week when Father was tanning leather. He called us all into action as the Excisemen rode up the glen.
“He’s coming in force this time,” Father said as we hurried to Toldhu.
The name means the Black Hole, and that is what it was, a black peat bog amid a dip, with a lochan in the middle and a low-lying island half-visible.
“You know what to do,” Father said.
Niall and I exchanged glances. I was nervous after the previous disaster.
“It’ll be all right,” Niall said, while Catriona, wild as the heather and always ready to have fun at anybody’s expense, laughed and tossed he
