About midday
The result was that they would have me stay a week , but I spoke of the shortness of my leave , and said I must get on to the railway and then back to Fort William for my luggage . So I spent that night between clean sheets , and ate a Christian breakfast , and was given my host 's car to set me a bit on the road . I dismissed it after half a dozen miles , and , following the map , struck over the hills to the west . About midday I topped a ridge , and beheld the Sound of Sleat shining beneath me . There were other things in the landscape . In the valley on the right a long goods train was crawling on the Mallaig railway . And across the strip of sea , like some fortress of the old gods , rose the dark bastions and turrets of the hills of Skye .