A man of immense learning and field experience, he is also a brusque personality, dogmatic in his views and hostile to anyone who dares question him. Which is precisely what Raven does. Raven has come to believe that Heslop Harrison is a liar. Not a big deal, one might think, except that the claim is a key link in a more far-reaching hypothesis that the islands, unlike the rest of Scotland, somehow escaped the last Ice Age 10,000 years ago. Sabbagh's method is to follow his young hero as he stalks esoteric plants and the villainous Harrison.
Roadblocks are everywhere.
Rhum is isolated and owned by one Lady Bullough, though it's guarded by Heslop Harrison as though it were his private domain. Raven manipulates his way onto the island, cannot find any sign of the plants, retreats to Cambridge, writes a scathing report for university authorities charging that the great scholar has imported and planted the specimens himself. Simply put, Heslop Harrison's breakthrough discoveries are fake. But, alas, Raven's revelations go nowhere. Harrison suffers no public exposure, no loss of job.