about two o'clock in the morning
Two noble colley dogs bounded to welcome them , and a beautiful bare-legged girl , about sixteen , ran forth to tell her father , in Gaelic , that the trouble was over , and that a boy was born . On going in , they found the mother asleep , while her gossip held the baby on her knee ; so the Doctor saw that he was not needed , and sat down , to wait until the woman should wake , having first , however , produced from his saddle two bottles of port wine , a present from Alice . The woman soon woke , and the Doctor , having felt her pulse , and left some medicine , started to ride home again , carrying with him an incense of good wishes from the warm-hearted Highlanders . Instead of looking carefully for the road , the good Doctor was soon nine fathoms deep into the reasons why the mountaineers and coast folk of all northern countries should be more blindly superstitious than the dwellers in plains and in towns ; and so it happened that , coming to a fork in the track , he disregarded the advice of his horse , and , instead of taking the right hand , as he should have done , he held straight on , and , about two o'clock in the morning , found that not only had he lost his road , but that the track had died out altogether , and that he was completely abroad in the bush . He was in a very disagreeable predicament . The fog was thicker than ever , without a breath of air ; and he knew that it was as likely as not that it might last for a day or two . He was in a very wild part of the mountain , quite on the borders of all the country used by white men .