The Explorer

heir fires; and the sentries shivered at their posts. It was a night that took the spirit out of a man and made all that he longed for seem vain and trifling. In Alec's tent the water was s

mosquito-curtain, a folding table, with a couple of garden chairs, and the cases which contain

in the wildest of African districts; and he was eminently unsuited for the life he led. He had come into a little money on attaining his majority, and this he had set himself resolutely to squander in every unprofitable way that occurred to him. When his last penny was spent he had been offered a post by a friend of his family's, who happened to be a director of the company, and had accepted it as his only refuge from starvation. Adversity had not been able to

ions; and there was a firm friendship between them. He was an Edinburgh man, with a slow drawl and a pawky humour, a great

' he called out

as if he were shot and in

ctor, putting up his hand.

n and looked at the do

bit groggy,

recovered his wits a

ming-dreaming of a high-heeled boot and a neat

t's as well I woke ye up in the middle of it before ye made a

e most ?sthetic

asked the do

y good doctor, and a barbarian; you don't know the care and forethought, the hours of anxious med

al man, Walker,' answered Adams

idle. Just now a camp-bed in a stuffy tent, with mosquitoes buzzing all around me, has allurements greater t

ably of the fox who sai

rat that sat up on its hind le

to sleep in, plenty to eat, tobacco

rim humour in the contrast between the difficult

yours,' he said, getting back to h

ering about. It'll be as

dress it a

The doctor removed the bandages and looked at the

ed. 'It's odd what good recoveries men make here w

ren't you?' asked Walker, as he wat

've a devil of a lot more w

Africa thinking I was going to have a rattling good t

u?' answered the doctor. 'But I don't suppose any of us

sengaged hand on

ering idiot as to give way again to a spirit of adventure. I shall look out for somet

n of the forest and the plains and the roasting sun and the mosquitoes themselves, come haunting

wed by a silence, which was b

hink of rumpst

him blankly, and Wa

takes the roof of your head off, and we've had the scantiest

u better if you only gesticula

es are spick and span. An obsequious menial brings me a rumpsteak, grilled to perfection, and so tender that it melts in the mouth. And he puts by my side a plate of cri

siderably to our cheerfulne

shrugged his

r with a careless epigram, and by the laborious composition

emember it for future use. The doctor paused for

e your last joke, old man; and that

her a tight cor

th MacKenzie, and I assure you I've never

himself a philoso

, it makes you squirm in your shoes, but when you've just got it

y had been fighting, with their backs to the wall, and each one had shown what he was made of. A few hours before things had been so serious that n

ttack us just those ten minutes, we

as all there

tion of enthusiasm, and he could only express his admir

son, drily. 'My own impression

es you th

verything's flourishing, he's apt to be a bit irritable. He keeps rather to

remembered observations which Alec on more than one occasion had made to recall him to a sense

p like one o'clock,' proceeded the doctor. 'A

uld just lie down and die, MacKenzie simply bubbles over with good humour. It's a hateful cha

sitively hilarious. Yesterday he wa

r. 'I daresay they sound f

sturdily ignoring the gibe. 'By the Lord Harry, said I t

and stretched

f us had any sleep for three days, and when I o

Perkins has got a bad dose of fever this tim

I'd almost

urred to him; and it had nearly slipped his memory that one of the whites had been killed the day before, while another was lying

hardson,'

red the doctor slowly. 'The fa

face was clouded. He knew to what the Scot referred

damned sight better if that young cub Allerton h

uch loss, would he?' sai

If I'd been in his shoes I'd have sent him

r, and the doctor pr

every chance in the world to go straight, they can't manage it.

ff his macintosh. His face lit up when he saw Walker and the doctor. Adamson

round of the outlyi

en so trivial a piece of informat

rene?'

es

ut him. The doctor knew him well enough to suspect that something very grave had hap

ative messenger tha

ng impo

es

it was impossible to question h

s the

thing. It's on

it. The smallest wound has a way o

t in a day or two,

plunged in thought. He passed his fingers through his b

' he asked suddenly,

ompson can last t

been in t

in unconscious since the day before. He was an old gold-prospector

longer. And some of the natives are rather badl

nyone in gr

o men who are in a bad way, but I t

aid Alec,

bsently passing his hand across th

ything to eat lately?'

ve the young man one of his rare, bright smiles

he dickens I had some food last. These Arab

had anything to-day. You

Alec, cheerfully. 'And thirsty, by Jove! I

but tepid water to drink!' W

food,' said the doctor. 'It's a rotten game

with twinkling eyes. 'It won't hurt me once in

ent to call the bo

ustion. I told him he might sleep till I called him.

had been impossible to go out on the search for game, and there was neither variety nor plenty ab

sn't it?' he s

len

l savage. You take food for the gross and bestial purpose of appeasing your hunger, and I

ing rather mould

ed in Africa, was getting ready for one of the pleasant little dinners at the Carlton upon which he prided himself. And then he thought of

morrow,' said Walker. 'Things will be going pretty

ed back h

orrow's dinner if I were you

asked

one that we shall be as dead

side, the wind howled grimly, and the r

ittle jokes, MacKenzie

served that I joke

g now?' asked th

t him and chu

Another sell for the mosquitoes, isn't it? I propose

e this,' said Walker. 'We're all so done

ave had two

his feet. He meditated

ho are wounded can't pos

y mu

swer for th

nce is to make a bold dash for it, a

oing to be a deuce o

ere

ain of the monotony of their existence,' said

t I'm going to

it out on his heel, filled and lit it. The doctor and Walker diges

ability of your demeanour that

f your patent-leath

chair. He no longer felt sleepy.

of getting through

c paused an unconscionabl

ways a chan

going to do a b

ar

yawned

at. If I am going to be done out of my night's

er he had over his fellows. It inspired an extraordinary belief in him, so that anyone would have followed him cheerfully to certain death. And though his words were few and bald, h

near finishing the job, and there won't be mu

s don't turn

s of Mayfair will be deprived of yo

hrough his head, and when he looked up again, with a shr

've heard some decent music, I've looked at nice pictures, and I've read some thundering fine books. If I can o

rought to Alec the recollection of what had caused the trouble which now th

said the doctor. 'I'll do what I can with those fellows

Perkins?'

try and keep him q

camp. I don't propose that anyone should kn

won't give

on the march quickly,' answered Alec, w

and at the same moment