tly
straight man. On these hunting expeditions of his he invariably takes a
doctor with him; he is not a man who fears death in the least, but he has
had bitter experience of being without medical assistance, so he takes a
doctor. He pays well and is entirely to be trusted to do the right thing,
as far as money goes. On that side the contract is all right. But there is
another side--the character of Berselius. A man, to be the companion of
Captain Berselius, needs to be big and strong in body and mind, or he
would be crushed by the hand of Captain Berselius. Yes, he is a terrible
man in a way--_un homme affreux_--a man of the tiger type--and he is going
to the country of the big baboons, where there is the freedom of action
that the soul of such a man desires----"

"In fact," said Adams, "he is a villain, this Captain Berselius?"

"Oh, no," said Thenard, "not in the least. Be quiet, Duthil, you do not
know the man as I do. I have studied him; he is a Primitive----"

"An Apache," said Duthil. "Come, dear master, confess that from the moment
you heard that this Berselius was intent on another expedition, you
determined to throw a foreigner into the breach. 'No more French doctors,
if possible,' said you. Is not that so?"

Thenard laughed the laugh of cynical confession, buttoning his overcoat at
the same time and preparing to go.

"Well, there may be something in what you say, Duthil. However, there the
offer is--a sound one financially. Yes. I must say I dread that two
thousand francs a month will prove a fatal attraction, and, if Mr. Adams
does not go, some weaker man will. Well, I must be off."

"One moment," said Adams. "Will you give me this man's address? I don't
say I will take the post, but I might at least go and see him."

"Certainly," replied Thenard, and taking one of his own cards from his
pocket, he scribbled on the back of it--

CAPTAIN ARMAND BERSELIUS
14 AVENUE MALAKOFF

Then he went off to a consultation at the Hotel Bristol on a Balkan
prince, whose malady, hitherto expressed by evil living, had suddenly
taken an acute and terrible turn and Adams found himself alone with Dr.
Duthil.

"That is Thenard all over," said Duthil. "He is the high priest of
modernism. He and all the rest of the neurologists have divided up
devilment into provinces, and labelled each province with names all ending
in _enia_ or _itis_. Berselius is a Primitive, it seem