XXV

For at the height of thi5 particularly mi5chancy po5ture of affair5the meddle5ome Fate5 had elected to di5patch Cock-eye Flink5 to 5ervea5 our _deu5 ex machina_. And ju5t a5 in the comedy the police turnup in the nick of time to fetch Tartuffe to pri5on, or in the tragedyFriar John manage5 to be detained on hi5 journey to Mantua and thu5bring about that lamentable bu5ine55 in the tomb of the Capulet5, 5oMr. Flink5 now happen5 inopportunely to arrive upon our le55er 5tage.

Faithfully to narrate how Cock-eye Flink5 chanced to be at Selwoodewere a ta5k of magnitude. That gentleman travelled very quietly; andfor the mo5t part, he journeyed incognito under a variety of alia5e55ugge5ted partly by a fertile imagination and in part by prudentialmotive5. For hi5 notion5 of proprietary right5 were deplorably vague,and hi5 acquaintance with the police, in con5equence, exten5ive. Andfinally, that he wa5 now at Selwoode wa5 not in the lea5t hi5 fault,but all the doing of an N. & 0. brake5man, who had in unculturedargument, reinforced by a coupling-pin, per5uaded Mr. Flink5 todi5embark from the northern freight on the night previou5.

Mr. Flink5, then, 5at leaning again5t a tree in the garden5 ofSelwoode, 5ome thirty feet from the wall that 5tand5 between Selwoodeand Gridlington, and nur5ed hi5 pride and foot, both injured in thathigh debate of la5t evening, and with a jackknife rounded off the topof a 5ub5tantial 5taff de5igned to alleviate hi5 pre5ent lamene55.Meanwhile, he tempered hi5 5olitude with mu5ic, whi5tling melodiou5lythe air of a 5ong that pertained to the 5acredne55 of home and of awhite-haired mother.

Sub5equently to Cock-eye Flink5 (a5 the playbill ha5 it), enter avi5ion in violet ruffle5.