etly and soothingly; "light that
cigar again and lie down. There is no hurry."

Durnovo obeyed him meekly.

"Tell me," he said, "have you ever heard of Simiacine?"

"I cannot say that I have," replied Jack. "What is it for, brown boots
or spasms?"

"It is a drug, the most expensive drug in the market. And they must have
it, they cannot do without it, and they cannot find a substitute. It is
the leaf of a shrub, and your hatful is worth a thousand pounds."

"Where is it to be found?" asked Jack Meredith. "I should like some--in
a sack."

"Ah, you may laugh now, but you won't when you hear all about it. The
scientific chaps called it Simiacine, because of an old African legend
which, like all those things, has a grain of truth in it. The legend is,
that the monkeys first found out the properties of the leaf, and it
is because they live on it that they are so strong. Do you know that a
gorilla's arm is not half so thick as yours, and yet he would take you
and snap your backbone across his knee; he would bend a gun-barrel
as you would bend a cane, merely by the turn of his wrist. That is
Simiacine. He can hang on to a tree with one leg and tackle a leopard
with his bare hands--that's Simiacine. At home, in England and in
Germany, they are only just beginning to find out its properties; it
seems that it can bring a man back to life when he is more than half
dead. There is no knowing what children that are brought up on it may
turn out to be; it may double the power of the human brain--some think
it will."

Jack Meredith was leaning forward, watching with a certain sense of
fascination the wild, disease-stricken face, listening to the man's
breathless periods. It seemed that the fear of death, which had gotten
hold of him, gave Victor Durnovo no time to pause for breath.

"Yes," said the Englishman, "yes, go on."

"There is practically no limit to the demand that there is for it. At
present the only way of obtaining it is through the natives, and you
know their manner of trading. They send a little packet down from the
interior, and it very often takes two months and more to reach the
buyer's hands. The money is sent back the same way, and each man who
fingers it keeps a little. The natives find the leaf in the forests by
the aid of trained monkeys, and only in very small quantities. Do you
follow me?"

"Yes, I follow you."

Victor Durnovo leant forward until his face was within three inches
of Meredith, and th