child--would go near him, or, least of all, touch him. The little party
were almost beside themselves with anxiety and terror, which feelings
were increased when poor Mrs Henderson exhibited symptoms of a similar
character. As for Gaunt, he was thoroughly alarmed; for not only did
the feeling of feebleness increase, but he also found himself gradually
becoming the victim of a blind unreasoning terror for which the term
"abject cowardice" afforded but a very inadequate description. And to
this very unpleasant sensation was added that of a morbid sense of
touch, so acute that even the very pressure of his clothes became almost
unendurable. Fully alive, however, to the possibly critical state of
affairs, he battled desperately against the influences at work upon him,
and, with infinite patience, at length succeeded in extorting from
Henderson a few suggestions toward the adoption of remedial measures,
which he put in force first for the benefit of the doctor, next for Mrs
Henderson--who had also succumbed to a similar though much milder
attack--and lastly for himself. Nothing that was done, however,
appeared to be of the slightest service, the symptoms continuing with
unmitigated severity for fully eight hours, after which they gradually
subsided. Gaunt was quite himself again by noon next day; Mrs
Henderson recovered about eighteen hours later; but as for the doctor,
it was fully a week before he entirely shook off the effects of the
attack. But in less than twenty-four hours from his first seizure he
had sufficiently recovered to give an explanation of the singular affair
to the following effect. He had, it would seem, been investigating the
nature of a hitherto unknown plant growing in considerable abundance
upon the island, and had found it to possess several very remarkable
qualities, some at least of which he believed might be rendered of the
utmost value in medical practice. Anxious to make his researches
thoroughly exhaustive he had, upon the day of the catastrophe, been
distilling the essence of the plant; and, his task completed, he was in
the act of bottling the extract for future examination when its
peculiarly pleasing fragrance caused him to take several deep
inhalations from the bottle. He had hardly done so when he felt his
strength rapidly leaving him, and he had only time to deposit the phial,
open, upon his table and stagger to a chair when something very like a
fit of paralysis seized him. He