It had rained heavily again overnight and the ground was boggy beneath his feet. Tom tried to step on the thicker clumps of yellow grass and avoid the bright green patches where the ground was at its marshiest, but his boots were soon soaked from straying into small pools, and it wasn’t long before the water had seeped through to his socks. He decided, once he was a safe distance from the road, to aim for higher ground, and began to make his way towards one of the small hills before him. He was now heading inland, and he thought that if he curved left again shortly, he would be walking north-west across the moorland and would eventually reach the machair on the north-west coast, which he could cross to join the road again.

But he couldn’t continue in the direction he wanted; he came to a stream that must have risen up during the night’s rain, or at least thickened, and it barred his way. It was too wide to jump and too deep to walk through without soaking his jeans up to the calves as well as his already-wet boots. Tom turned again and followed the stream for some time, hoping for a suitable crossing point, but although he followed its winding path for twenty minutes, at no point did it become narrow enough for him to jump. Not wanting to retrace his steps, he changed direction instead, and made for one of the outcrops behind him. A small band of wild goats was eating the grass near the top of the mound, and watched Tom sullenly as he climbed it, scattering with startling grace when he neared them. The hill wasn’t high enough to afford a useful view of the ground below that might guide him back to the road. None of them were, he thought. The terrain was too much of a patchwork, with one mound hiding the next from view. Tom saw only the occasional sheep; there wasn’t much here for them to graze on.

Still, he liked knowing he wouldn’t meet anyone else walking out here, and since he was in no hurry anyway, he didn’t particularly mind taking a more circuitous route back than he’d planned. He continued to scramble up and down different outcrops, and found that the concentration required in order not to slip on the damp rocks or miss his footing meant that he was free for the time being from other anxieties. Eventually, having walked for a long time without seeming to make any progress, he began to think he’d better focus on getting back to the road or he would not be home before dark. He wasn’t exactly sure which direction to go in anymore, but he thought he probably needed to bend to the right, which he had an idea was west.