, 1916-06-22

~ ~
South America" said he. mo COM
ments, II you please. First of all. l
wish you to understand that nothing
l tell you now Is to be repeated in any
public way unless you have my X
press permission. That permission
will In all human probability never be
given. Is that clear?'
at is very hard" said /. Surely a
judicious account
He replaced the notebook upon the
table.
"That ends it," said he. 81 wish
you q very good morning"
mo, no!' l cried. 81 submit to any
conditions. So far as l can see. l have
no choice"
"None In the world" said he.
"Well, then, l promise"
WORD of honor?"
"Word Of honor"
He looked at me with doubt In his
insolent eyes.
your honor?" said he.
upon my word, sir" l cried angrily,
you take very great liberties! 1 have
never been so insulted in my life"
He seemed more interested than an
noyed at my outbreak.
Round headed he muttered.
"Brachycephalic, gray eyed, black
haired, with suggestion of the negroid.
Celtic, / presume?"
81 am an Irishman, SIR"
Irish Irish?"
Eyes, sir"
THAT, of course, explains It Let
me see. you have given me your prom
Use that my confidence will be respect
ed. That confidence, l may say, will
be far from complete. But l am pre-
pared to give you a few indications
which will be of interest. In the first
place. you are probably aware that
two years ago l 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 Wal
lace and of Bates, which could only be
done by observing their reported facts
under the same conditions In which
they had themselves noted them. IL
my expedition had no other results 1t
would still have been noteworthy. but
a curious incident occurred to me
while there which opened up an entire
ly 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 ex-
plored and hat a great number of
tributaries. some of them entirely I'M
charted, run into the main river. II
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 Justlf-
cation. | was returning, my work &C.
complished, when | had occasion to
spend u night ut a small Indian village
ut a point where a certain tributary
the name and position Of which with
hold-opens into the main river. The
natives were Cucama Indians, an
amiable but degraded race. with NEIL
tai powers hardly superior to the aver
age Londoner. | had effected some
cures among them upon my way up
the river and had impressed them con-
siderably with my personality, so that
| was not surprised to find myself ca
gerly awaited upon my return. l gath
cred from their signs that some one
had urgent need of my medical serv-
Ices, and / followed the chief to n
Of his huts. When l entered l found
that the sufferer to whose aid l had
been summoned had that instant ex-
pired. He was, to my surprise, no In
dian, but II white man. Indeed, may
say u very white man, for he was fax
en- haired and had some characteristics
Of an alblno. He was clad In rags, was
very emaciated and bore every trace of
prolonged hardship. So far as | could
understand the account of the natives
he was n complete stranger to them
and had come upon their village
through the woods alone and In he
last stage Of exhaustion.
'The mans knapsack lay beside he
couch, and | examined the contents.
His name vas written upon a tab with
In it-'Maple White. Lake avenue, De-
troit, Mich.
From the contents of the knapsack
1t was evident that this man had been
an artist and poet In search Of effects.
There were scraps Of verse. / do not
profess to be u judge OF such things,
but they appeared to me to be singu-
larly wanting in merit.
~ was turning away from him
when | observed that something pro-
jected from the front Of his ragged
jacket. 1t was this sketchbook, which