midnight
There they had wealth of fuel , abundance of water , and a plentiful choice of solitary places admirably adapted to their purpose ; it was easy to rig up a bothy , or hut of turf thatched with heather , in some secluded spot far from the haunts of inconvenient revenue officers , and a Still that would turn out excellent spirit was not difficult to construct . With reasonable care the thing might be done almost with impunity -- though there was never wanting , of course , the not entirely unpleasurable excitement of knowing that you were breaking the law , that somebody _ might _ have turned informer , and that at any moment a raid might be made . Every unknown face necessarily meant danger , each stranger was a person to be looked on with suspicion till proved harmless . Even the friends and well-wishers of the illicit distiller did not always act in the way most conducive to his comfort and well-being , for if his still turned out a whisky that was extra seductive , he speedily became so popular , so run after , and the list of his acquaintances so extended , that sooner or later tidings of his whereabouts leaked round to the ears of the gaugers , and arrest , or a hasty midnight flitting , was the outcome . Besides , such popularity became a severe tax on the pocket of the distiller , for the better the whisky the greater the number of those who desired to sample it , and the oftener they sampled it , the more they yearned to repeat the process . Nor was it safe to make a charge for the liquor thus consumed , lest it might chance that some one of those who partook of it might , out of revenge for being charged , lay an information . About the end of the eighteenth century there lived in a remote glen on Cheviot a Highlander , one Donald M'Donald , who was famous for the softness and flavour of the spirit he distilled .