s; this Balkan
prince is--I don't know what they call him--sure to be something Latin,
which does not interfere in the least with the fact that he ought to be
boiled alive in an antiseptic solution. Have another cigarette."

"Do you know anything special against Captain Berselius?" asked Adams,
taking the cigarette.

"I have never even seen the man," replied Duthil, "but from what I have
heard, he is a regular buccaneer of the old type, who values human life
not one hair. Bauchardy, that last doctor he took with him, was a friend
of mine. Perhaps that is why I feel vicious about the man, for he killed
Bauchardy as sure as I didn't."

"Killed him?"

"Yes; with hardship and overwork."

"Overwork?"

"_Mon Dieu_, yes. Dragged him through swamps after his infernal monkeys
and tigers, and Bauchardy died in the hospital at Marseilles of spinal
meningitis, brought on by the hardships of the expedition--died as mad as
Berselius himself."

"As mad as Berselius?"

"Yes; this infernal Berselius seemed to have infected him with his own
hunting fever, and Bauchardy--_mon Dieu_, you should have seen him during
his illness, shooting imaginary elephants, and calling for Berselius."

"What I want to get at is this," said Adams. "Was Bauchardy driven into
these swamps you speak of, and made to hunt against his will--treated
cruelly, in fact--or did Berselius take his own share of the hardships?"

"His own share! Why, from what I can understand, he did all the hunting. A
man of iron with the ferocity of a tiger--a very devil, who made others
follow him as poor Bauchardy did, to his death----"

"Well," said Adams, "this man interests me somehow, and I intend to have a
look at him."

"The pay is good," said Duthil, "but I have warned you fully, if Thenard
hasn't. Good evening."

The Rue Dijon, where Adams lived, was a good way from the Beaujon. He made
his way there on foot, studying the proposition as he went.

The sporting nature of the proposal coming from the sedate Thenard rather
tickled him.

"He wants to pit me against this Berselius," said Adams to himself, "same
as if we were dogs. That's the long and short of it. Yes, I can understand
his meaning in part; he's afraid if Berselius engages some week-kneed
individual, he'll give the weak-kneed individual more than he can take. He
wants to stick a six-foot Yankee in the breach, instead of a five-foot
froggie, all absinthe and cigarette ends. Well, he was frank, at al