The small man stopped in the doorway to the store and exclaimed,"Good lord,McTavish! Did a cow throw up on your pants?" Roland McTavish scowled fiercely at the man and said,"Archibald Mardalan! Nay! It's a gift from a lady-friend." Archie's wife pushed him out of the door, and said,"You must have it, very bad, to be seen in public like that! You poor man!" Roland blinked and asked,"What? What do I have a bad case of?" Archie sighed,"It's love, lad! Ye dinna see it coming up on ye like a thief in the night! Cupid done perforated ye like a target for his balistae of love! It's Emily, daughter of the blacksmith, isn't it?" "Aye, that it is. I heard thunder last night, early and flashes of light like lightning in the direction of the hill! Were ye up to some nefarious antics or such at dinner?" Roland looked piercingly at his friend. Archie laughed,"I weren't up to ANY nefarious dealings at suppertime! Me missus would have me head on a pole come the morrow! I DID hear the thunder and see lightning, but dinna see a cloud in the sky. Is that common around these parts?" Roland shook his head,"Ye're keeping more in your pocket than being laid on the table!" Archie laughed,"I try to keep in my pants, what is in my pants...MOST of the time! I AM married, and a grandfather,to boot! SOMETHING got out at some time!" The small man guffawed and the wife slugged him a good one in the upper arm. He grinned and asked,"By the way, Roland...did ye find the water where me wife said it was? I heard that the well driller was finished yesterday." Roland nodded as another man entered the shop. Roland said,"EXACTLY where she said! Thirty four feet down from the stake she drove in! NO dowser is that exact! That isn't the lowest spot on the property,either! How'd she know?" Archi said,"My wife always had a REAL touch for water, and healing,too. That's why she's so highly paid. Right? Roland?" He sighed,"Aye. Yer tab is wiped out and you still have four quid and two bob coming to ye. Let me see to this gent. OH, your books should be in on the afternoon stage from Aberdeen, by the by." The man who had walkd in asked,"Excusez-moi, monsieur? I am here about the old fort on the hill? The Tap O'Noth, I think you call it? What can you tell me about it?" Roland said,"We don't get many French up this way, Mister...?" "Jules Verne," he said and shook Roland's hand. Archie and his wife broke up laughing. Archie said,"The novelist who wrote about that huge cannon to SHOOT people into space! We loved your novel! It was great comedy!" Verne sighed,"Il n'etait pas destine a atre une comedie!" Archie said in fluent French,"Excuse me, Mister Verne! My name is Archibald Mardalan, a professor around here. Your mathematics had a serious flaw." Roland said,"Professor Mardalan! Please in the King's English!" Verne said,"Grave mathematics flaw? In 'From the Earth to the Moon'?" Archie nodded,"Aye. To overcome the force of gravity, your astronauts would experience over 22350 gravities of delta V, or in other words, Each man would be crushed beneath the weight of 22,350 men his weight. If each man weighed say... 100 kilograms, they'd weigh momentarily 2,235,000 kilograms. They be killed instantly, if they are normal humans of Earth. Their capsule would be shrapnel leaving the muzzle,too. Sorry. I am an engineer, mathematician and Professor, and you are just a novelist. Except for the math, it was pretty good." Roland 'ahemed' and said,"If ye're through reviewing the man's book? The fortress has been here longer than the village of Rhynie. Further back than the Romans. No one knows how old it is." Professor Mardalan said,"Since twelve thousand B.C. I'd wager a guess. Why're interested?" Verne said,"It might be a relic of the empire of Atlantis, before it sank into the Atlantic Ocean!" Archie and wife looked at him like eagles and Archi said,"NOW you got my interest! Let's talk." --TO BE CONTINUED!--