"I don"t know much," Mackenzie admitted. "I was with the Cameron Highlanders at the time, waiting for the balloon to go up. Most of the local men were. I was one of the lucky ones; I came back."
"What could you tell us, Major Mackenzie?" Charlie leaned forward in her chair. "Any little snippet of information could be helpful."
Mackenzie signalled for another whisky. "There were three men in the party," he said, "Mike Mahoney was an experienced Irish climber. He learned his trade in Ireland and climbed all over the Alps so a wee Scottish ben should have been nothing more than an afternoon jaunt for him. Maybe he was too casual."
"Do you think they fell?" I asked.
"They must have," Mackenzie said. The Ceathramh Garbh, the Rough Quarter is a bad place for a fall, with no roads, no shepher
