ut about
some district that people had never been to, and it wouldn't have been
any use to them if they had, because, if the natives didn't kill you,
the climate made no bones about it. He came back crippled with fever,
having failed in his attempt, and, after asserting that no one could get
into the heart of Rofa's country and return alive, promptly gave up the
ghost. So Alec immediately packed up his traps and made for the place.'

'I proved the man was wrong,' said Alec quietly. 'I became great friends
with Rofa, and he wanted to marry my sister, only I hadn't one.'

'And if anyone said it was impossible to hop through Asia on one foot,
you'd go and do it just to show it could be done,' retorted Dick 'You
have a passion for doing things because they're difficult or dangerous,
and, if they're downright impossible, you chortle with joy.'

'You make me really too melodramatic,' smiled Alec.

'But that's just what you are. You're the most transpontine person I
ever saw in my life.' Dick turned to Lucy and Mrs. Crowley with a wave
of the hand. 'I call you to witness. When he was at Oxford, Alec was a
regular dab at classics; he had a gift for writing verses in languages
that no one except dons wanted to read, and everyone thought that he was
going to be the most brilliant scholar of his day.'

'This is one of Dick's favourite stories,' said Alec. 'It would be quite
amusing if there were any truth in it.'

But Dick would not allow himself to be interrupted.

'At mathematics, on the other hand, he was a perfect ass. You know, some
people seem to have that part of their brains wanting that deals with
figures, and Alec couldn't add two and two together without making a
hexameter out of it. One day his tutor got in a passion with him and
said he'd rather teach arithmetic to a brick wall. I happened to be
present, and he was certainly very rude. He was a man who had a precious
gift for making people feel thoroughly uncomfortable. Alec didn't say
anything, but he looked at him; and, when he flies into a temper, he
doesn't get red and throw things about like a pleasant, normal
person--he merely becomes a little paler and stares at you.'

'I beg you not to believe a single word he says,' remonstrated Alec.

'Well, Alec threw over his classics. Everyone concerned reasoned with
him; they appealed to his common sense; they were appealing to the most
obstinate fool in Christendom. Alec had made up his mind to be a
mathematici