Chapter XIV: Part 14

And so it really was. At the head of the pier at Newport there is a shed, with seats within, where people wait for the ferry-boats; and there, _perdu_ beneath a form, lay the enchanted trunk, having been so disposed, in the bustle of unloading, by means which nobody could pretend to understand. The guard, with a half-frightened look, approached the awful object, and soon placed it with the other things on board the ferry-boat.

On our landing at Dundee pier, the proprietor of the trunk saw so well after it himself, that it was evident no accident was for this time to be expected. However, it appeared that this was only a lull to our attention. The tall gentleman was to go on to Aberdeen by a coach then just about to start from Merchant’s Inn; while I, for my part, was to proceed by another coach, which was about to proceed from the same place to Perth. A great bustle took place in the narrow street at the inn door, and some of my late fellow-travellers were getting into the one coach, and some into the other. The Aberdeen coach was soonest prepared to start, and, just as the guard cried “all’s right,” the long figure devolved from the window, and said, in an anxious tone of voice,

“Guard, have you got my trunk?”

“Your trunk, sir!” cried the man; “what like is your trunk?—we have nothing here but bags and baskets.”

“Heaven preserve me!” exclaimed the unfortunate gentleman, and burst out of the coach.

It immediately appeared that the trunk had been deposited by mistake in the Perth, instead of the Aberdeen coach; and unless the owner had spoken, it would have been, in less than an hour, half way up the Carse of Gowrie. A transfer was immediately made, to the no small amusement of myself and one or two other persons in both coaches who had witnessed its previous misadventures on the road through Fife. Seeing a friend on the Aberdeen vehicle, I took an opportunity of privately requesting that he would, on arriving at his destination, send me an account by post of all the further mistakes and dangers which were sure to befall the trunk in the course of the journey. To this he agreed, and, about a week after, I received the following letter:—

“DEAR ——,

“All went well with myself, my fellow travellers, and THE TRUNK, till we had got a few miles on this side of Stonehaven, when, just as we were passing one of the boggiest parts of the whole of that boggy road, an unfortunate lurch threw us over upon one side, and the exterior passengers, along with several heavy articles of luggage, were all projected several yards off into the morass. As the place was rather soft, nobody was much hurt; but, after every thing had been again put to rights, the tall man put some two-thirds of himself through the coach window, in his usual manner, and asked the guard if he was sure the trunk was safe in the boot.

“‘Oh Lord, sir!’ cried the guard, as if a desperate idea had at that moment rushed into his mind; ‘the trunk was on the top. Has nobody seen it lying about any where?’

“‘If it be a trunk ye’re looking after,’ cried a rustic, very coolly, ‘I saw it sink into that well-ee[9] a quarter of an hour syne.’

“‘Good God!’ exclaimed the distracted owner, ‘my trunk is gone for ever. Oh, my poor dear trunk!—where is the place—show me where it disappeared!’

“The place being pointed out, he rushed madly up to it, and seemed as if he would have plunged into the watery profound to search for his lost property, or die in the attempt. Being informed that the bogs in this part of the country were perfectly bottomless, he soon saw how vain every endeavour of that kind would be; and so he was with difficulty induced to resume his place in the coach, loudly threatening, however, to make the proprietors of the vehicle pay sweetly for his loss.

“What was in the trunk, I have not been able to learn. Perhaps the title-deeds of an estate were among the contents; perhaps it was only filled with bricks and rags, in order to impose upon the innkeepers. In all likelihood, the mysterious object is still descending and descending, like the angel’s hatchet in Rabbinical story, down the groundless abyss: in which case its contents will not probably be revealed till a great many things of more importance and equal mystery are made plain.”

END OF THE VOLUME.

Printed by W. and R. CHAMBERS,
19, Waterloo Place, Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Not innocent—a phrase applied by the common people in Scotland to any thing which they suppose invested with supernatural powers of a noxious kind.

[9] The orifice of a deep pool in a morass is so called in Scotland.

Transcriber’s Notes

pg 44 Changed: their course acccording to the general
to: their course according to the general

pg 78 Changed: dressed a dood deal above Filch
to: dressed a good deal above Filch

pg 79 Changed: solicit his former friends for sudsidies
to: solicit his former friends for subsidies

pg 138 Changed: It was farther remarked
to: It was further remarked

pg 207 Changed: covered up in a similar maner
to: covered up in a similar manner

pg 272 Changed: without being painsfully and gradually won
to: without being painfully and gradually won