with reverence and awe and similar holy emotions the fruits
of her own unsurpassed discovery!"

Dr. Delmour's lovely features became delicately suffused and transfigured
as she spoke; her exquisite voice thrilled with generous emotion; she
clasped her snowy hands and gazed, enraptured, at the picture of Dr.
Bottomly which her mind was so charmingly evoking.

"Perhaps," she whispered, "perhaps at this very instant, in the midst of
that vast and flat and solemn desolation the only protuberance visible
for miles and miles is Professor Bottomly. Perhaps the pallid Arctic sun
is setting behind the majestic figure of Professor Bottomly, radiating a
blinding glory to the zenith, illuminating the crowning act of her career
with its unearthly aura!"

She gazed at us out of dimmed and violet eyes.

"Gentlemen," she said, "I am ordered to take command of this expedition
of yours; I am ordered to sail with you tomorrow morning on the Labrador
and Baffin Line steamer _Dr. Cook_.

"The object of your expedition, therefore, is not to be the quest of
_Philohela quinquemaculata_; your duty now is to corroborate the almost
miraculous discovery of Professor Bottomly, and to disinter for her the
vast herd of frozen mammoths, pack and pickle them, and get them to the
Bronx.

"Tomorrow's morning papers will have the entire story: the credit and
responsibility for the discovery and the expedition belong to Professor
Bottomly, and will be given to her by the press and the populace of our
great republic.

"It is her wish that no other names be mentioned. Which is right. To the
discoverer belongs the glory. Therefore, the marsh is to be named
Bottomly's Marsh, and the Glacier, Bottomly's Glacier.

"Yours and mine is to be the glory of laboring incognito under the
direction of the towering scientific intellect of the age, Professor
Bottomly.

"And the most precious legacy you can leave your children--if you get
married and have any--is that you once wielded the humble pick and shovel
for Jane Bottomly on the bottomless marsh which bears her name!"

* * * * *

After a moment's silence we three men ventured to look sideways at
each other. We had certainly killed Professor Bottomly, scientifically
speaking. The lady was practically dead. The morning papers would
consummate the murder. We didn't know whether we wanted to laugh or not.

She was now virtually done for; that seemed certain. So greedily had th