The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-29
NEW BooKs.
The Doctors Revenge.

chapter about two old soldiers, who forth
with drop out Of the tale. There il another
chapter in which a scampish man Of BUSH
ness is bearded and upbraided somewhat
too rhetorically by one Of his victims.
A third chapter establishes a simple do
mestio scene and involves a considerable
play Of humor that must in candor be de-
scribed as also somewhat simple. Mr..
the too sharp man OF business,
sat In his private Office in his warehouse
in Sydney. Young DIR. Rookleigh, newly
home from China, sat sternly confronting
him. Said young DR.. Rockleigh: Ten
years ago, Mr.. Merton, my father sat where
you sit. You were only working your
way UP then. You had lone very well
in the house for a lad my father picked
out Of the gutter. From first TO last he
befriended you-and yours. Your mother
had her last days made happy by his gen
erosity. Mine is lying dead tonight. snd
her death is at your door as surely as II
you had killed her with you hands
Mr.. Merton assumed an air Of unconcern.
He stretched himself on the lounge and
lighted a cigar. Young DR.. Rockleigh
continued in part as follows: MY father
was az good a man as God ever made. He
made no better. Indeed he was too good
for traffic with men Of your kind. He
gave you all his confidence. You gained
such influence over him-heaven knows
by what subtle, devilish means-that in
the end he became your dependent, not
you his. On your advice he went into this
and that speculation. You would leave
our table-breaking bread with us had
no sort OF obligation to you, Merton-and
60 with my father to his den to cozen
him, to cajole him, cheat him. You had
you traitorous dog!-you had the brazen
impudence to try and win my sister from
us, a slammed affection to bring us closer
in your coil, and then when the traps you
led my father into snapped on him one
after the other you found a temporary
way out Of the difficulty through my
mothers affection. Next her settlement
went, and all that remained was my fathers
~encumbered interest in the house, encum-
bered by usurious interest and ruinous
conditions to you. Then the day came
when you finally ate US up, picked us clean
to the bone"
One good point about this speech IL that
IL clearly establishes the fact that DIR. Rock
leigh and his family had been deeply
wronged by Merton. If the young doctor
cherished ideas Of vengeance it Is not likely
that the reader will blame him. In the
fourth chapter-the one following upon the
simple domestic scene which we have mem
toned but forborne from illustrating-the
reader will find his interest suddenly stimu-
lated. Nearly everybody has heard OF the
tropical American poison called curare.
Capt. Mayne Reid made it wonderfully
famous; it was 0ssaroo. as we remember,
VINO used to blow with fearful results
through his blowpipe arrows that had been
dipped in curare. So much as a scratch
from one of these poisoned darts and that
was the end Of the stricken one. In the
fourth chapter here, five years after the
denunciation of Merton in his Sydney ware
house, we nave Merton and DR.. Rockleigh
and a supply Of curare brought fortuitously
together. Merton, travelling for his health,
was knocked over by the sun in the Queens
land wilderness. He fell into the hands Of
DR.. Rockleigh, who made use Of him for a
beautiful experiment. As Merton lay help
less the doctor injected under his skin
three doses-one Of curare, n OF an alleged
antidote for that poison and one of strych-
nine. The result was all that any reason
able Vengeance could demand. Merton
recovered his physical health, but his men,
ory was gone and his mind otherwise was
s~ingularly affected. He no longer knew
how to overreach his fellows or to coin
money through shrewd specula ton and
trade. He was fitted pa fticularly to be a
wanderer, a tramp, and that he became.
The doctor had beer very thorough. As
a final touch he had performed a slight
surgical operation. As the result of il
&c. ,sIo - AIartOnta fann Uau ottt ~ oil
keeping with the other, the corner Of the
mouth sagging, the lid of the eye half closed.
Rockleigh had severed the facial nerve TO
prevent recognition. The operation left
only a minute incision in the flesh, but
wrought a complete-a repulsive change"
That done, the doctor rechristened his
patient, who did not remember his W
name. He called him Ishmael, gave him
a Ct note and sent him forth into the world.
From the fourth chapter on the story is
exceedingly interesting. Ishmael had a
hard time. In the ninth chapter we read:
THE unkempt be ard could not wholly hide
his distorted featL res; iron gray hair, dusty
and tangled, reached almost to his Shout
ders; the rolled sic ewes Of his shirt showed
arms burnt brown by the sun. His hands
were horned and SCARED, the nails broken
and disfigured. The world had gone i'll
with Ishmael. In Brisbane, his little capital
exhausted, he had lived the life OF a dog
not the we'll fed dog in the back yard OF the
PHOSPHORUS citizen, but the masterless dog
who skulks along the lanes and alleys at
midnight, nosing in the rubbish boxes for
the wherewithal to live" He wandered into
the wilderness. HE padded the hoof' along
rough tracks worn by the timber getters'
teams, with the bent back and the SLOUGH
ing gait of the swagsman, his sole belong
ings slung crosswise on his back; his greasy
soft hat strung round with bits OF cork on
boot lace to keep away the flies that COM
passed him like a cloud by day, darting
with devilish persistency at his bloodshot
eyes" Deep in the bush he came upon a
clearing and a house, and there was a
struggling family that took him
But that was only after argument. He
had been fed-had had "a pannikin Of tea,
a plate Of stew, and a hunk Of damper,
thick and stodgy.' He asked for a job.
The young man OF the place answered:
you're kiddin'. You don't wan no job.
Now then, you've had some tucker, move