and spring
medicines in families don't know anything of anatomy, they ain't fit to
give us their simple and nat'ral medicines?"

"But the Chinese medicines are not simple or natural," said the doctor
coolly.

"Not simple?" echoed the party, closing round him.

"I don't mean to say," continued the doctor, glancing around at their
eager, excited faces with an appearance of wonder, "that they are
positively noxious, unless taken in large quantities, for they are not
drugs at all, but I certainly should not call them 'simple.' Do YOU know
what they principally are?"

"Well, no," said Parker cautiously, "perhaps not EXACTLY."

"Come a little closer, and I'll tell you."

Not only Parker's head but the others were bent over the counter. Dr.
Duchesne uttered a few words in a tone inaudible to the rest of the
company. There was a profound silence, broken at last by Abe Wynford's
voice:--

"Ye kin pour me out about three fingers o' whiskey, Barkeep. I'll take
it straight."

"Same to me," said the others.

The men gulped down their liquor; two of them quietly passed out. The
doctor wiped his lips, buttoned his coat, and began to draw on his
riding-gloves.

"I've heerd," said Poker Jack of Shasta, with a faint smile on his white
face, as he toyed with the last drops of liquor in his glass, "that the
darned fools sometimes smell punk as a medicine, eh?"

"Yes, THAT'S comparatively decent," said the doctor reflectively. "It's
only sawdust mixed with a little gum and formic acid."

"Formic acid? Wot's that?"

"A very peculiar acid secreted by ants. It is supposed to be used by
them offensively in warfare--just as the skunk, eh?"

But Poker Jack of Shasta had hurriedly declared that he wanted to speak
to a man who was passing, and had disappeared. The doctor walked to the
door, mounted his horse, and rode away. I noticed, however, that there
was a slight smile on his bronzed, impassive face. This led me to
wonder if he was entirely ignorant of the purpose for which he had been
questioned, and the effect of his information. I was confirmed in the
belief by the remarkable circumstances that nothing more was said of it;
the incident seemed to have terminated there, and the victims made no
attempt to revenge themselves on See Yup. That they had one and all,
secretly and unknown to one another, patronized him, there was no doubt;
but, at the same time, as they evidently were not sure that Dr. Duchesne
had not hoaxed them