I slipped it under the strap to keep it safe." "It seems to me," said my uncle, adjusting his spectacles and unfolding the paper, "illegible, or almost so.

It has evidently been thoroughly soaked with salt water.

Come here and see if your young eyes can help me to decipher it." We bent together over the blurred handwriting.

The letter was evidently in a feminine hand; but the characters were rudely and inartistically formed, while every here and there a heavy down-stroke or flourish marred the beauty of the page.

Wherever such thick lines occurred the ink had run and formed an illegible smear.