tente?"

Stent replied instantly: "We join you with thanks, Siurd. My one ibex hunt
is no experience at all compared to your record of a veteran--" He looked
full and significantly at Brown; continuing: "As you say, we have all day
and--a long night before us. Let us make ourselves comfortable here in the
sun before we take--our final stations."

And they seated themselves in the lee of the crag, foregathering
fraternally in the warm alpine sunshine.

The Herr Professor von Dresslin grunted as he sat down. After he had
lighted his pipe he grunted again, screwed together his butterfly net and
gazed hard through thick-lensed spectacles at Brown.

"Does it interest you, sir, the pursuit of the diurnal Lepidoptera?" he
inquired, still staring intently at the American.

"I don't know anything about them," explained Brown. "What are
Lepidoptera?"

"The _schmetterling_--the butterfly. In Amerika, sir, you have many fine
species, notably Parnassus clodius and the Parnassus smintheus of the four
varietal forms." His prominent eyes shifted from one detail of Brown's
costume to another--not apparently an intelligent examination, but a sort
of protruding and indifferent stare.

His gaze, however, was arrested for a moment where the lump under Brown's
tunic indicated something concealed--a hunting knife, for example. Brown's
automatic was strapped there. But the bulging eyes, expressionless still,
remained fixed for a second only, then travelled on toward the Ross
rifle--the Athabasca Regiment having been permitted to exchange this
beloved weapon for the British regulation piece recently issued to the
Canadians. From behind the thick lenses of his spectacles the Herr
Professor examined the rifle while his monotonously dreary voice continued
an entomological monologue for Brown's edification. And all the while Von
Glahn and Stent, reclining nearby among the ferns, were exchanging what
appeared to be the frankest of confidences and the happiest of youthful
reminiscences.

"Of the Parnassians," rumbled on Professor von Dresslin, "here in the Alps
we possess one notable example--namely, the Parnassus Apollo. It is for
the capture of this never-to-be-sufficiently studied butterfly that I
have, upon this ibex-hunting expedition, myself equipped with net and
suitable paraphernalia."

"I see," nodded Brown, eyeing the green tin box and the net. The Herr
Professor's pop-eyed attention was now occupied with the service puttees
worn