all the running parts had to be cleaned smooth, and with the
exception of a rudimentary knowledge on the part of Pulz and Perdosa,
we were ignorant. In fact we should not have succeeded at all had it
not been for Percy Darrow and his lantern. The first evening we took
him over to the cliff's edge he laughed aloud.

"Jove, boys, how could you guess it _all_ wrong," he wondered.

With a few brief words he set us right, Pulz, Perdosa, and I listening
intently; the others indifferent in the hopelessness of being able
to comprehend. Of course, we went wrong again in our next day's
experiments; but Darrow was down two or three times a week, and
gradually we edged toward a practical result.

His explanations consumed but a few moments. After they were finished,
we adjourned to the fire.

Thus we came gradually to a better acquaintance with the doctor's
assistant. In many respects he remained always a puzzle, to me.
Certainly the men never knew how to take him. He was evidently not
only unafraid of them, but genuinely indifferent to them.

Yet he displayed a certain interest in their needs and affairs. His
practical knowledge was enormous. I think I have told you of the
completeness of his arrangements--everything had been foreseen from
grindstones to gas nippers. The same quality of concrete speculation
showed him what we lacked in our own lives.

There was, as you remember, the matter of Handy Solomon's steel claw.
He showed Thrackles a kind of lanyard knot that deep-sea person had
never used. He taught Captain Selover how to make soft soap out of
one species of seaweed. Me, he initiated in the art of fishing with
a white bone lure. Our camp itself he reconstructed on scientific lines
so that we enjoyed less aromatic smoke and more palatable dinner. And
all of it he did amusedly, as though his ideas were almost too obvious
to need communication.

We became in a manner intimate with him. He guyed the men in his
indolent fashion, playing on their credulity, their good nature, even
their forbearance. They alternately grinned and scowled. He left
always a confused impression, so that no one really knew whether he
cherished rancour against Percy Darrow or kindly feeling.

The Nigger was Darrow's especial prey. The assistant had early
discovered that the cook was given to signs, omens, and superstitions.

From a curious scholar's lore he drew fantastics with which to torment
his victim. We heard of all the witches, war