l him who
and what I am.

He stops, with laughing eyes and mocking mouth, and accompanies a
"Good day, how do you do?" with a gracious gesture of salutation.

I respond coldly to his politeness--a fact which he affects not to
notice.

"May Saint Jonathan protect you, Mr. Gaydon!" he continues in his
clear, ringing voice. "You are not, I presume, disposed to regret
the fortunate circumstance by which you were permitted to visit this
surpassingly marvellous cavern--and it really is one of the finest,
although the least known on this spheroid."

This word of a scientific language used in conversation with a simple
hospital attendant surprises me, I admit, and I merely reply:

"I should have no reason to complain, Mr. Serko, if, after having had
the pleasure of visiting this cavern, I were at liberty to quit it."

"What! Already thinking of leaving us, Mr. Gaydon,--of returning to
your dismal pavilion at Healthful House? Why, you have scarcely had
time to explore our magnificent domain, or to admire the incomparable
beauty with which nature has endowed it."

"What I have seen suffices," I answer; "and should you perchance be
talking seriously I will assure you seriously that I do not want to
see any more of it."

"Come, now, Mr. Gaydon, permit me to point out that you have not yet
had the opportunity of appreciating the advantages of an existence
passed in such unrivalled surroundings. It is a quiet life, exempt
from care, with an assured future, material conditions such as are not
to be met with anywhere, an even climate and no more to fear from the
tempests which desolate the coasts in this part of the Atlantic than
from the cold of winter, or the heat of summer. This temperate and
salubrious atmosphere is scarcely affected by changes of season. Here
we have no need to apprehend the wrath of either Pluto or Neptune."

"Sir," I reply, "it is impossible that this climate can suit you, that
you can appreciate living in this grotto of----"

I was on the point of pronouncing the name of Back Cup. Fortunately I
restrained myself in time. What would happen if they suspected that
I am aware of the name of their island, and, consequently, of its
position at the extremity of the Bermuda group?

"However," I continue, "if this climate does not suit me, I have, I
presume, the right to make a change."

"The right, of course."

"I understand from your remark that I shall be furnished with the
means of returning to Amer