The Lost World

the Flail of th

e wealthy man of taste and the careless untidiness of the bachelor. Rich furs and strange iridescent mats from some Oriental bazaar were scattered upon the floor. Pictures and prints which even my unpractised eyes could recognize as being of great price and rarity hung thick upon the walls. Sketches of boxers, of ballet-girls, and of racehorses alternated with a sensuous Fragonard, a martial Girardet, and a dreamy Turner. But amid these varied ornaments there were scattered the trophies which brought back strongly to my recollection the fa

of smokables and a burnished spirit-stand, from which and an adjacent siphon my silent host proceeded to charge two high glasses. Having indicated an arm-chair to me and placed my refreshment near it, he

ething which was the essence of the English country gentleman, the keen, alert, open-air lover of dogs and of horses. His skin was of a rich flower-pot red from sun and wind. His eyebrows were tufted and overhanging, which gave those naturally cold eyes an almost ferocious aspect, an impression which was increased by his strong and furrowed brow. In figure he was spare, but ver

pronounced as if it were all one word--"young-fellah-me-lad.") "Yes, we've taken a jump, you an

ought

n. Why, I've only been back three weeks from Uganda, and taken a place in Scotl

line of my business. I am a

ok it on. By the way, I've got a sm

plea

takin' a r

is the

er--he's the risk.

N

rikin' an average, he calls it. He got delirium on Toosday, and has been ragin' like a devil ever since. His room is above this. The doctors say that it is all up with the old dear unless some food is got into him, but as he lies in bed with a revolver on h

mean to do, t

only wing one of us, and the other should have him. If we can get his bolster-cover round

cowardice and with a terror of such a stigma. I dare say that I could throw myself over a precipice, like the Hun in the history books, if my courage to do it were questioned, and yet it would surely be pride and fear, rather than courage, which would be my inspiration. Ther

e it any better,"

onfidential chuckle of laughter, he patted me two or three

d--you'll do," said he.

ind--what? You see, between you an' me close-tiled, I look on this South American business as a mighty serious thing, and if I have a pal with me I want a man I can bank on. So I sized you down, and I'm bound to say that

rve, pe

it, for it is the manliest game we have left. Well, I didn't ask you in here just to talk sport. We've got to fix our business. Here are the sailin's, on the first page of the Times.

will see

you s

ge Territori

e hive goes. You'll look silly, some o' these days, when someone comes along an' sneaks the honey. But you'll need to hold your gun straight in

w it open I caught a glimpse of glistening rows

spare you out of my o

utting them with a snap and a clang, and then patting them as he put th

big fellow with it." He glanced up at the white rhinoceros. "

l bullet his on

k one's adva

won't find it in any Blue-book. There are times, young fellah, when every one of us must make a stand for human right and justice, or you never feel clean again. That's why I made a little war on my own. Declared it myself, waged it myself, ended it myself. Each of those nicks is for a slave murderer--a good row of them--what? That big one is fo

back to his chair, "what do you k

aw him til

man we don't know. He seemed an uppish old bird. His brothers of science don't

g, and he listened intently. Then he drew out a

e more you knew of that country, young fellah, the more you would understand that anythin' was possible--ANYTHIN'1. There are just some narrow water-lanes along which folk travel, and outside that it is all darkness. Now, down here in the Matto Grande"--he swept his cigar over a part of the map--"or up in this corner where three countries meet, nothin' would surprise me. As that chap said to-night, there are fifty-thousand miles of water-way runnin' through a forest that is very near the size of Europe. You and I could be as far away from each other as Scotland is from Constantinople, and yet each of us be in the same great Brazilian forest. Man has just made a track he

s, with a gun in my fist and s