He was alive, and seemed to be well the last time this
gentleman saw him; but he was a miserable slave in irons without the
slightest prospect of getting away."

"Hah!" exclaimed the doctor, dropping into a chair and beginning to wipe
his forehead.

"Oh!" groaned the professor, sinking back in his chair, but only to
become excited directly after, as he turned upon the bearer of the news.

"But he's alive, Frank, boy! he's alive!" he cried, in a peculiarly
altered voice.

"Yes, thank Heaven!" said Frank Frere softly; "he is alive."

No one spoke for a few moments. Then the professor began again
excitedly--

"Look here," he cried, "both of you; that German sausage is a fool!"

The others turned on him with wondering eyes as if they doubted his
sanity, a notion quite pardonable from his manner of speaking and the
wild look he had given himself by thrusting both his hands through his
rather long, shaggy black hair, and making it stand up on end.

"Well," he said sharply, "what are you two staring at?"

"Well, Fred," said the doctor smiling, "I suppose it was at you."

"And pray why were you staring in that peculiar way at me? Here, you
answer--you, Frank."

"I was staring on account of the sausage," said the young man, sinking
back in his chair and laughing aloud.

"Here, Bob," said the professor excitedly, "what have you been giving
this fellow--ether? It's too strong for him. Got on his nerves."

"Nonsense," said the doctor, joining softly in their young friend's
mirth. "What makes you think that?"

"Why, you heard. He doesn't know what he's talking about--staring on
account of the sausage!"

"Well, that's why I was looking at you so hard."

The professor stared now in turn, passed one hand across his forehead,
stared again, and then said gravely--

"I say, you two, has this glorious news sent you both out of your
minds?"

"No," cried both heartily. "It only sounded so comical and so different
from your ordinary way," continued the younger man, "when you called my
German friend a sausage."

The professor's face was so full of perplexity that in the reaction
after the pain of the sudden good news, his friends began to laugh
again, making the clever scientist turn his eyes inquiringly upon the
doctor.

"Well, it's a fact," said the latter. "You did."

"What!" cried the professor indignantly. "That I didn't! I said that
German gentleman was a fool."

"No, no, no," cried Frank, half hyst