of repose, James looks at it for
a moment and then observes, "Rather an awkward job, this, sir! It is
more than a crack along the whole length of the fiddle; somebody has
been at it trying to mend it and made it positively worse. The edges
are quite apart. You can see through in some places, and in others there
is a lot of black hard glue."

The chief now has a look over the damaged part and then remarks, "The
thread of the pine happens to be very straight, and that will lessen
the trouble."

"Right, sir," is James's rejoinder, "not like that Genoese fiddle that
we had some time back with the very curly bit of pine that looked as
if the tree had been growing at the side of a rock and trying to look
round the corner. Fitting a straight piece along the centre of that
fiddle was no joke."

"Well, James, wash all that filthy dark glue away, and when quite dry,
run a thin chisel along each side of the hole, taking fine shavings
off until the upright walls have a sharp clean edge."

The washing out is at once commenced, and when finished, the upper table,
which of course had been removed some time back for ascertaining the
necessary amount of repairing, is placed apart for drying.

While this is in process, another violin is taken in hand. It has a
different kind of fracture, which it has been thought well for
appearance sake should be re-opened and made tidy, in fact, obscured
as much as present skill will allow of.

The fracture, although not one of very common occurrence, is of a kind
well known to professional repairers. It has been caused by a twist,
possibly while being handled by some clumsy or heavy-handed repairer
of olden times, and hastily filled with polluted glue, pressed together
and left to itself. It is not at right angles with the plane of the
instrument, but at a very acute one, very little evidence of it,
possibly none, being seen from the inside.

The first step taken by the repairer is the cleansing and removal of
all foreign particles likely to interfere with the adhesion of the
surfaces to be brought into contact. As there is present much grime,
and this not free from a suspicion of the presence of grease, James
has recourse to the bottle of benzine, into which he dips a small brush,
working it backwards and forwards, wiping it on an absorbent rag and
re-applying the liquid.

This does not take very long; the evaporation being rapid, the wood
is soon ready for the next stage, which is that of