ntion was caught by some
object floating on the stream. He cast his flies over it, and landed a
soft felt hat, the ribbon stuck full of salmon-flies. Mr. K--- at once
hurried up-stream, filled with the most lively apprehensions. These were
soon justified. In a shallow, below the narrow, deep and dangerous
rapids called 'The Trows,' Mr. K--- saw a salmon leaping in a very
curious manner. On a closer examination, he found that the fish was
attached to a line. About seventy yards higher he found, in shallow
water, the body of a man, the hand still grasping in death the butt of
the rod, to which the salmon was fast, all the line being run out. Mr.
K--- at once rushed into the stream, and dragged out the body, in which
he recognised with horror the Hon. Houghton Grannom, to whom the water
was lately let. Life had been for some minutes extinct, and though Mr.
K--- instantly hurried for Dr. ---, that gentleman could only attest the
melancholy fact. The wading in 'The Trows' is extremely dangerous and
difficult, and Mr. Grannom, who was fond of fishing without an attendant,
must have lost his balance, slipped, and been dragged down by the weight
of his waders. The recent breaking off of the hon. gentleman's
contemplated marriage on the very wedding-day will be fresh in the memory
of our readers."

This was the story which I read in the newspaper during breakfast one
morning in November. I was deeply grieved, rather than astonished, for I
have often remonstrated with poor Grannom on the recklessness of his
wading. It was with some surprise that I received, in the course of the
day, a letter from him, in which he spoke only of indifferent matters, of
the fishing which he had taken, and so forth. The letter was
accompanied, however, by a parcel. Tearing off the outer cover, I found
a sealed document addressed to me, with the superscription, "Not to be
opened until after my father's decease." This injunction, of course, I
have scrupulously obeyed. The death of Lord Whitchurch, the last of the
Grannoms, now gives me liberty to publish my friend's _Apologia pro morte
et vita sua_.

"Dear Smith" (the document begins), "Before you read this--long before, I
hope--I shall have solved the great mystery--if, indeed, we solve it. If
the water runs down to-morrow, and there is every prospect that it will
do so, I must have the opportunity of making such an end as even
malignity cannot suspect of being voluntary. There are