doctor.
"Now, if it had been years ago, with your smart little craft, and you
had been followed up here by a small sloop of war, or an English letter
of marque, you might have expected to be made a prize. But this is an
ordinary Spanish schooner, and though I suspected it at first, I don't
think she is tainted by the slave trade, but engaged in traffic with the
natives for the sake of palm-oil."

"Perhaps you are right, sir," said the Count.

"I feel sure I am," said the doctor, "and I must confess to having
hailed this man's coming, from the help he will be to me in a little
expedition I propose to make when we have seen the brig restored and all
set right."

"I thank you," said the Count, "but I am so anxious for the success of
my own scientific search that I have got into the habit of seeing
enemies in every one, even as I did, doctor, in you and your men. And
you see this is an armed vessel with a very strong crew."

"Well," said the doctor good-humouredly, "we have armed vessels with
very strong crews. Anxiety has made you nervous, Count. Here's your
doctor," he said, turning to Captain Chubb, "and before many days have
passed he will have cured all your trouble, and we can get to sea
again."

"Ah, yes, that will be better," said the Count, wiping his moist brow.
"You must forgive me, doctor--and you too, Captain Chubb. I am
impatient, I know. But I see now all will be well. One moment, though:
you said we can get to sea again. _We_? You will sail with me?"

"My dear sir," said the doctor, "you need have no fear. Captain Chubb
will make your brig as sound as ever. You will need to look for no
further assistance from me."

"I did not mean that," said the Count hastily. "I meant brotherly
help--the help that one devoted to research could give to another."

"But," said the doctor, laughing, "you have never confided to me what
particular form of research yours is."

"No, I have not," said the Count hurriedly, "and I ask you to spare me
from explanation. Be satisfied if I say that we are both bound upon
great missions, and that you, a brother scientist, can give me enormous
help by working in company with me for the next few weeks at most. Is
this too much to ask of a learned doctor like you?"

"Oh no," said Uncle Paul good-humouredly; "I do not see that it is. You
are not going to ask me to help you to escape from an English prison."

The Count gave an involuntary start.

"Of course not,"