re, in a fit of depressing but
greedy sulks.

At length we moved on again, and in about another half-an-hour
apparently reached the limit of the Practical-joking Engineers' work,
for our surly charioteer suddenly jumped on the box, and cracking
his whip furiously, got all the pace that was left in them out of
our three sagacious horses, and in a few more minutes we were tearing
along a level road past scattered _chalets_, little wooden toy-shops,
and isolated _pensions_, towards a colossal-looking white palace that
stood out a grateful sight in the distance before us, basking in the
calm white-blue blaze shed upon it from a couple of lofty electric
lights, that told us that up here in the mountains we were not coming
to rough it, but to be welcomed by the latest luxuries and refinements
of first-rate modern hotel accommodation. And this proved to be
the case. Immediately he arrived in the large entrance-hall, the
Dilapidated One was greeted by the Landlord of the Hotel et Kurhaus,
Titlis, politely assisted to the lift, and finally deposited in the
comfortable and electrically-lighted room which had been assigned to
him.

"We are extremely full," announced the polite Herr to Dr. MELCHISIDEC;
"and we just come from finishing the second dinner,"--which seemed
to account for his being "extremely full,"--"but as soon as you
will descend from your rooms, there will be supper ready at your
disposition."

"You'll just come and look at the Bath-chair before you turn in?"
inquired Dr. MELCHISIDEC, of the Dilapidated One, "It's arrived all
right from Zurich. Come by post, apparently."

"Oh, that's nothing," continued young JERRYMAN, "why, there's nothing
you can't send by post in Switzerland, from a house full of furniture,
down to a grand piano or cage of canaries. You've only got to clap
a postage-stamp on it, and there you are!" And the arrival of the
Bath-chair certainly seemed to indicate that he was telling something
very like the truth.

[Illustration: The Trick Chair.]

"I don't quite see how this guiding-wheel is to act," remarked Dr.
MELCHISIDEC, examining the chair, which was of rather pantomimic
proportions, critically; "but suppose you just get in and try it! 'Pon
my word it almost looks like a 'trick-chair'!" which indeed it proved
itself to be, jerking up in a most unaccountable fashion the moment
the Dilapidated One put his foot into it, and unceremoniously sending
him flying out on to his head forthwith.