98 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE 



the side of the hand which is holding the flippers. 

 So after a short struggle I am compelled to take 

 the corpse for the present back to its rock again. 



And now it strikes me that shooting-boots of 

 gigantic size are hardly conducive to good swim- 

 ming, so I take them off, and, tying them together 

 by the laces, start back again, holding them in 

 one hand. 



" But oftentimes to win us to our harm, 

 The instruments of darkness tell us truths," 



and though I swim with greater ease and rapidity, 

 better would it have been had I persisted in the 

 old arrangement. As I near the spot whence I 

 fired, the particular " instrument of darkness " 

 who rules the destinies of this fatal day unties 

 the knot, and a wild clutch only succeeds in 

 rescuing one useless foot covering from a watery 

 grave ! At such a depth it needs a better diver 

 than myself to recover its fellow. 



I go off as fast as bootless feet can carry me 

 over the sharp rocks, to a point on the beach 

 where I remember to have seen a bough of con- 

 derable length lying among the other driftwood 

 and wreckage. With this and with the lunch 

 I return, and we spend much valuable time in 

 just failing to reach the lost boot with the extem- 

 pore grappling-hook. The clear water shows it 

 tantalisingly near in fact, so well can I see it 

 that, as we cease our vain attempts, the crabs sur- 



