fault, doctor," said Haviland. "I let him go on. He's in the same
line as ourselves, you know."

"Is he? He'll be in a different line from any of us if he gets thinking
he's all right before he is. Sure, the constitution of a bull won't
pull a man through everything--not quite."

The patient accepted this grave rebuke with a smile, and lay still. He
had not yet put these friends in need in full possession of the facts of
his misfortunes, but there was plenty of time for that.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ten years had gone by since last we saw Haviland, in imminent danger of
expulsion from Saint Kirwin's, and which it is probable he only escaped
through a far greater grief than that--the death of his father; and for
the most part of that period his career has been pretty much as we find
him now--a wandering one, to wit. He had not returned to Saint
Kirwin's, for the potent reason that the parson had left his family in
somewhat of straits, and the eldest member thereof was old enough, at
any rate, to do something for himself. This had taken the form of a
bank clerkship, obtained for him by an uncle. But to the young lover of
Nature and the free open air and the woods and fields, this life was one
that he loathed. It told upon his health at last, and realising that he
would never do any good for himself in this line, the same relative
assisted him to emigrate to South Africa. There he had many ups and
downs--mostly downs--and then it occurred to him to try to turn his
much-loved hobby into a profession. He obtained introductions to one or
two scientific men, who, seeing through the genuineness of his gifts,
offered him employment, sending him as assistant on scientific
expeditions, and finally entrusting the leadership of such entirely to
his hands. And he succeeded wonderfully. He had found his line at
last, and followed it up with an entire and whole-hearted enthusiasm.

Yet such expeditions were no child's play. A capacity for every kind of
hardship and privation, indomitable enterprise, the multifold perils of
the wilderness to face, starvation and thirst, the hostility of fierce
savage tribes, treachery and desertion or overt mutiny on the part of
his own followers, and the deadly, insidious malaria lurking at every
mile in the miasmatic equatorial heat. But the same spirit which had
moved those midnight poaching expeditions at Saint Kirwin's was with