THE FLIGHT OF TIME 



mementoes of him. I had had my own watch 

 about as long as my father had had the one of 

 which he was relieved, when in my capacity as 

 Mayor of Bath, I was invited by the Lord Mayor 

 of Bristol to join him in receiving the present 

 King and Queen on their visit to that city. As 

 I stepped out of the railway carriage at Bath on 

 returning home, I put my hand to my watch 

 pocket in order to learn the time. Strange to 

 say, my hand grasped nothing, my pocket being 

 as empty as my father's was on the occasion to 

 which I have just referred. I felt for my chain, 

 but that had no more substantiality than my 

 watch. And then I was forced to the humiliating 

 conclusion that I had been no more wideawake 

 than my progenitor was when he allowed a common 

 thief to despoil him. History had once again 

 repeated itself, but had gone one better in my 

 case by depriving me of my chain as well as my 

 watch. I remembered that, when waiting at 

 Bristol Railway Station for my train, there was a 

 sudden stampede and some one cannoned against 

 me, and I suppose that it was then the abduction 

 was accomplished. It must have been very cleverly 

 done, for I never felt the tug. Sadly I betook 

 myself to the Bath Police Station in order to 

 request our watch dogs to communicate with the 

 Bristol constabulary upon the subject, and, having 

 done this, resolved that I would take particular 

 care to keep all knowledge of the incident securely 

 locked within my own breast. 



I had sufficient acquaintance with the world 

 and its ways to realize that no one ever gets any 

 real sympathy on losing his watch at the hands 



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