"No, it was only expedient. The best way to take the world is to wring
it dry--not to try and convert it and make it better, but to turn its
vices to account. That method has the double advantage of serving one's
purpose at the time, and standing as a warning later. The best way to
cure vice is to turn it ruthlessly to one's own account. That is what we
are doing with Durnovo. His little idiosyncrasies will turn in witness
against him later on."

She shook her head in disbelief.

"Your practice and your theory do not agree," she said.

There was a little pause; then she turned to him gravely.

"Have you been vaccinated?" she asked.

"In the days of my baptism, wherein I was made--"

"No doubt," she interrupted impatiently, "but since? Have you had it
done lately?"

"Just before I came away from England. My tailor urged it so strongly.
He said that he had made outfits for many gents going to Africa, and
they had all made their wills and been vaccinated. For reasons which are
too painful to dwell upon in these pages I could not make a will, so I
was enthusiastically vaccinated."

"And have you all the medicines you will require? Did you really want
that quinine?"

There was a practical, common-sense anxiety in the way she asked these
questions which made him answer gravely.

"All, thanks. We did not really want the quinine, but we can do with it.
Oscard is our doctor; he is really very good. He looks it all up in a
book, puts all the negative symptoms on one side, and the positive on
the other--adds them all up, then deducts the smaller from the larger,
and treats what is left of the patient accordingly."

She laughed, more with the view of pleasing him than from a real sense
of the ludicrous.

"I do not believe," she said, "that you know the risks you are running
into. Even in the short time that Maurice and I have been here we have
learnt to treat the climate of Western Africa with a proper respect. We
have known so many people who have--succumbed."

"Yes, but I do not mean to do that. In a way, Durnovo's--what shall we
call it?--lack of nerve is a great safeguard. He will not run into any
danger."

"No, but he might run you into it."

"Not a second time, Miss Gordon. Not if we know it. Oscard mentioned a
desire to wring Durnovo's neck. I am afraid he will do it one of these
days."

"The mistake that most people make," the girl went on more lightly, "is
a want of care. You cannot be too careful, y