THE "WHUSTLER " 265 



the prospect would be nothing less than 

 disquieting. Had I not read in some 

 scientific book that salmon travel mainly 

 by moonlight, and at a speed which the 

 best of human engines cannot attain ? 

 True, the man of science had been 

 speaking of salmon when running up the 

 rivers ; but he had not said that when 

 running down they go with any less 

 celerity. What, then, if the whustler 

 got into the Balvaig, which was in 

 brawling amplitude from nearly a week 

 of rain ? The river has an almost 

 straight run to the sea. In my startled 

 imagination I beheld our craft, in tow of 

 the whustler, leaving Strathyre within 

 ten minutes ; Callander within quarter 

 of an hour. Rushing past Doune, 

 ere long we should cross the romantic 

 Allan Water, and be making full-steam- 

 ahead for the Firth of Forth. Perhaps 

 we might look in at St. Margaret's Hope 

 or at the Port of Leith. There was no 

 finality to the possibilities with which 

 the situation was charged. Once in the 



