A SCHERZO 165 



wrecked upon one of the piers of the bridge, 

 when its guilty contents would inevitably be dis- 

 closed. 



Heavens ! What might not the consequences 

 be? One had heard, in that northerly clime, of an 

 unfortunate wretch, taken red-handed in such a 

 delinquency, having to leave an hotel in disgrace. 

 Why, it was only the previous year that a telegram, 

 handed in at the Kinloch-Rannoch post-office, had 

 been returned to us with a peremptory request to 

 remove a certain word which had been introduced 

 into the message ; — a small and harmless word 

 commencing with a d, and which, in that land of 

 many waters, might, one would have thought, have 

 been taken to refer to a river. Even a prison 

 might be staring us in the face. With such a con- 

 summation, who knows but that these chronicles 

 might never have been inflicted upon a long- 

 suffering world. 



But the most trivial circumstance — even the 

 shallowing of a river-bed — may avert the direst 

 catastrophe: for to such an apparently unimpor- 

 tant eventuality as that did the unhappy occupants 

 of the boat owe their immunity from disaster. It 

 was simplicity itself; the craft arrived in water 



