“You think I have finished. There is worse to come. We were hiking our way out of Glenbogle when after about three miles we were overtaken by a lorry and three motorcars filled with fiends in human shape who literally drove us before them for eight miles. Sometimes one or other of us would fall from the road on either side into the grass. Did our tormentors care? No, they laughed. To them it was great sport. To them we were of less importance than their grouse or their stags or their rabbits.

“I have nearly done. We reached the end of Glenbogle literally battered to pieces by these cars and utterly worn out by the speed at which we had been compelled to move along one of the roughest roads in the kingdom. We were quite incapable of hiking another step. So it was decided to take the bus to Fort William, which involved a wait of three hours for half the party who could not be accommodated in the first bus. Then we decided to take the train back to London and bring our case before you. You will hear from our Acting President what action it is proposed to take against the forces of Fascist reaction. Nothing remains for me except to sit down and allow other speakers to take up the case.”

The Secretary resumed his seat amid thunderous applause, and the cheering was redoubled when Lord Buntingdon leaned over and shook him by the hand to congratulate him upon his eloquence and commiserate with him on his ordeal.

Then the President rose and called upon Miss Winifred Gosnay. By this time, however, poor Miss Gosnay was suffering acutely from stage-fright. She had frequently spoken at the Debating Society of the great London store in which she worked, and when she was invited to relate her experiences in the dungeons of Glenbogle she had heedlessly consented. But the sight of that audience of four or five hundred excited hikers was altogether too much for her self-confidence. Perhaps if she had been wearing shorts and grasping her staff she might have managed to summon up the necessary courage, but in her best summer frock and sauciest hat she was paralysed.

The Acting President went across to encourage her to rise, but she shook her head almost hysterically.

“I couldn’t, Mr Buckham. I couldn’t really. I wouldn’t be able to say a word. I’d just make an exhibition of myself. Ask Elsie Vyell. She was in the dungeon too.”

The Acting President beckoned Tom Camidge to try his power of persuasion.

“No, Tom, please. I couldn’t really. Don’t go on. I’ll burst into tears in a minute. I didn’t think it would be like this when I said I would.”

Tom Camidge, from the long emotional experience of a two years’ engagement to Winifred, advised the Acting President it would be dangerous to press his fiancée further.