Mr Standfast (John Buchan, 1919)

I took the train three days later from King’s Cross to Edinburgh. I went to the Pentland Hotel in Princes Street and left there a suit-case containing some clean linen and a change of clothes.  I had been thinking the thing out, and had come to the conclusion that I must have a base somewhere and a fresh outfit.  Then, in well-worn tweeds and with no more luggage than a small trench kit-bag, I descended upon the city of Glasgow.

 

        I walked to the station which Blenkiron had given me.  It was a hot summer evening, and the streets were filled with bareheaded women and weary-looking artisans.  As I made my way down the Dumbarton Road I was amazed at the number of able-bodied fellows about, considering that you couldn’t stir a mile on any British front without bumping up against a Glasgow battalion.  Then I realized that there were such things as munitions and ships, and I wondered no more.

John Buchan:  Chapter 36 ("Andrew Amos").  
Excerpt from Mr Standfast.  London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1919