Compensations

The Shield Of Time, PART FOUR,  1965 A. D.

"'The continuum does tend to maintain its structure. A radical change is only possible at certain critical points in history. Elsewhen, compensations occur.'" (p. 168)

Let us imagine an example of a compensation:

a time traveller wants to prevent a certain man from receiving and acting on specific information;

therefore, the time traveller intercepts a letter that was addressed to that man and that contained that information;

if the man had received the letter, then, acting on the information, he would immediately have left home and travelled across country;

however, remaining at home, the man strolls down the high street and meets an acquaintance who imparts the information;

he acts on it;

the time traveller realizes that he must not only intercept the letter but also prevent that meeting with an acquaintance;

he now worries that there might be other factors that he has to counteract.

In this case, the acquaintance would have been on the high street even in the man's absence. However, does "compensation" mean that sometimes events that would not otherwise have happened do happen to bring about "compensation." In this case, that would mean that the acquaintance happened to be on the high street only because the letter had been intercepted. I find this interpretation difficult to accept but is it what is meant by "compensation"?