ss-ejector cordite rifle and a .256 sporting Mannlicher, for
Schaunard was a man who, when he took an interest in a customer, could be
very interesting.

When business was concluded Schaunard gave his customer various tips as to
the treatment of guns. "And now," said he, opening the door as Adams was
taking his departure, "I will give you one more piece of advice about this
expedition. It is a piece of private advice, and I will trust you not to
tell the Captain that I gave it to you."

"Yes. What is the advice?"

"Don't go."

Adams laughed as he turned on his heel, and Schaunard laughed as he closed
the door.

A passer-by might have imagined that the two men had just exchanged a good
joke.

Before Adams had taken three steps, the door of the shop re-opened, and
Schaunard's voice called again.

"Monsieur."

"Yes?" said Adams, turning.

"You need not pay me for the gun till you come back."

"Right," said Adams, laughing. "I will call in and pay you for it when I
come back. _Au revoir._"

"_Adieu._"

CHAPTER V

MARSEILLES

On the day of departure Berselius was entertained at _dejeuner_ by the
Cerele Militaire. He brought Adams with him as a guest.

Nearly all the sporting members of the great club were present to speed
the man who after Schillings was reckoned on the Continent the most
adventurous big-game hunter in the world.

Despite what Stenhouse, Duthil, and Schaunard had said, Adams by this time
inclined to a half-liking for Berselius; the man seemed so far from and
unconscious of the little things of the world, so destitute of pettiness,
that the half liking which always accompanies respect could not but find a
place in Adams's mind.

Guest at a table surrounded by sixty of the wealthiest and most powerful
officers of a military nation, Berselius did not forget his companion, but
introduced him with painstaking care to the chief men present, included
him in his speech of thanks, and made him feel that though he was taking
Berselius's pay, he was his friend and on a perfect social equality with
him.

Adams felt this keenly. On qualifying first he had obtained an appointment
as travelling physician to an American, a prominent member of the New York
smart set, a man of twenty-two, a motorist, a yachtsman, clean shaved as
an actor and smug as a butler, one of those men who make the great
American nation so small in the eyes of the world--the world that cannot
see beyond the servants' h