There I fixed matters satisfactorily and the officer on his part promised also to convey to the nine good men my deep sense of obligation. As I bade him good-bye, he asked me if I remembered what he had told me.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘When the sky is green or there is a swell on a calm day, look out. Long-drawn clouds betoken wind and—’

‘No, no,’ he interrupted me. ‘Do you remember about the paraffin and the flare?’

A conscientious officer, a helpful cheery man, and I liked his southern tongue. He had a good word to say for the strangers he dwelt amongst and felt he could assure me that such simple arrangements as I had made would be properly received.

A quick breakfast and I was down to the shore again carrying more gear. There the skipper of the local lobster boat was waiting to say good-bye. We had had pleasant talks together, especially about the present economic position of the lobster fishing and what could be done to improve it, and as I had nothing to do now but wait for the Crew with the last of our personal belongings, we sat down on this calm lovely morning and talked together.

The immediate difficulty here at Duntulm, as I had already found it in the northern mainland, was one of transport. The accommodation on a bus carrying passengers is limited. The freightage charges on a single box of lobsters, from passenger bus to final rail delivery, is so considerable that it is often crippling and always out of anything like reasonable proportion to the fisherman’s returns. What was necessary here to begin with, we decided, was a two- or four-ton truck doing the loop from Portree by Staffin, Duntulm, Uig, etc., back to Portree, two or three times a week, and collecting en route from all the creeks. Mass consignments would reduce transport charges by nearly half and be an incentive to production.

The individualism of the Highlander is deep-seated and inclined to suspect grandiose schemes. Yet the whole past basis of his social life has been communal, and the folk will still help to cut one another’s peats or plough one another’s land and even find a sort of holiday pleasure in the process. But all at once extend that process to the pooling of the surplus resources of many villages and to the sharing out of profits in hard cash, and in due course there would be quarrels, mistrusts, and disruption. There must be a transition period. The four-ton lorry would help.

Roads would require widening and building up here and there, but even this might be done if a real economic case were made out for the authorities who spend so many millions of pounds with no ostensible purpose beyond helping the smooth passage of the tourist car.

As Mr. Nicolson and I talked away in this strain, the lad came ashore in the dinghy, and now descending from the hotel were the Crew and the lady who had been our perfect hostess for several busy days.