, I wish you to understand that nothing I
tell you now is to be repeated in any public way unless you have my
express permission. That permission will, in all human probability,
never be given. Is that clear?"

"It is very hard," said I. "Surely a judicious account----"

He replaced the notebook upon the table.

"That ends it," said he. "I wish you a very good morning."

"No, no!" I cried. "I submit to any conditions. So far as I can see,
I have no choice."

"None in the world," said he.

"Well, then, I promise."

"Word of honor?"

"Word of honor."

He looked at me with doubt in his insolent eyes.

"After all, what do I know about your honor?" said he.

"Upon my word, sir," I cried, angrily, "you take very great liberties!
I have never been so insulted in my life."

He seemed more interested than annoyed at my outbreak.

"Round-headed," he muttered. "Brachycephalic, gray-eyed, black-haired,
with suggestion of the negroid. Celtic, I presume?"

"I am an Irishman, sir."

"Irish Irish?"

"Yes, sir."

"That, of course, explains it. Let me see; you have given me your
promise that my confidence will be respected? That confidence, I may
say, will be far from complete. But I am prepared to give you a few
indications which will be of interest. In the first place, you are
probably aware that two years ago I made a journey to South
America--one which will be classical in the scientific history of the
world? The object of my journey was to verify some conclusions of
Wallace and of Bates, which could only be done by observing their
reported facts under the same conditions in which they had themselves
noted them. If my expedition had no other results it would still have
been noteworthy, but a curious incident occurred to me while there
which opened up an entirely fresh line of inquiry.

"You are aware--or probably, in this half-educated age, you are not
aware--that the country round some parts of the Amazon is still only
partially explored, and that a great number of tributaries, some of
them entirely uncharted, run into the main river. It was my business
to visit this little-known back-country and to examine its fauna, which
furnished me with the materials for several chapters for that great and
monumental work upon zoology which will be my life's justification. I
was returning, my work accomplished, when I had occasion to spend a
night at a small Indian village at a point where a certain
tribu