out
that room? If old West----"

The words were interrupted. The door of the room in question was pushed
open, and Dr. West came out of it. Had Master Cheese witnessed the
arrival of an inhabitant from the other world, introduced by the most
privileged medium extant, he could not have experienced more intense
astonishment. He had truly believed, as he had just expressed it, that
Dr. West was at that moment a good mile away.

"Put your hat on, Cheese," said Dr. West.

Cheese put it on, going into a perspiration at the same time. He thought
nothing less than that he was about to be dismissed.

"Take this note up to Sir Rufus Hautley's."

It was a great relief; and Master Cheese received the note in his hand,
and went off whistling.

"Step in here, Mr. Jan," said the doctor.

Jan took one of his long legs over the counter, jumped off, and stepped
in--into the doctor's sanctum. Had Jan been given to speculation, he
might have wondered what was coming; but it was Jan's method to take
things cool and easy, as they came, and not to anticipate them.

"My health has been bad of late," began the doctor.

"Law!" cried Jan. "What has been the matter?"

"A general disarrangement of the system altogether, I fancy," returned
Dr. West. "I believe that the best thing to restore me will be change of
scene--travelling; and an opportunity to embrace it has presented
itself. I am solicited by an old friend of mine, in practice in London,
to take charge of a nobleman's son for some months--to go abroad with
him."

"Is he ill?" asked literal Jan, to whom it never occurred to ask whether
Dr. West had first of all applied to his old friend to seek after such a
post for him.

"His health is delicate, both mentally and bodily," replied Dr. West. "I
should like to undertake it: the chief difficulty is leaving you here
alone."

"I dare say I can do it all," said Jan. "My legs get over the ground
quick. I can take to your horse."

"If you find you cannot do it, you might engage an assistant," suggested
Dr. West.

"So I might," said Jan.

"I should see no difficulty at all in the matter if you were my partner.
It would be the same as leaving myself, and the patients could not
grumble. But it is not altogether the thing to leave only an assistant,
as you are, Mr. Jan."

"Make me your partner, if you like," said cool Jan. "_I_ don't mind.
What'll it cost?"

"Ah, Mr. Jan, it will cost more than you possess. At least, it ought."