"What is that?" I asked.

"That is the end," said Dream. "We shall die together."

Rapidly the smoke, which did not rise and disperse, became more opaque,
vibrating until it took solid shape. Before us leered the misshapen head
and bright beady eyes of the Professor.

His right hand covered with a rubber glove slipped out of the boot and
drew forth the death-rod.

"The stranger dies first," he said, and pointed the rod at me. Dream
clung to me. I felt a sensation as of fire in my throat.

And now comes what seems to me--though it may not so seem to others--the
strangest part of my story. Passing through a kind of swoon, I found
myself gently rocked as on board a ship. Opening my eyes I saw two men
bending over me. One of them held a glass containing brandy to my lips.

"You see?" said a voice triumphantly. "The beggar's alive and I win my
bet."

I found afterwards that I was on board the steamship _Hermione_ bound
from Alexandria to Cardiff with a cargo of cotton seed. I had been found
senseless at the bottom of an open boat. I was treated with plenty of
rough kindness and brought back to my own country; but over the story
which I told them the crew shook their heads gravely.

Since then nothing of import happened to me until I was brought to this
great barrack-like place where I now live in fair comfort. There are
many doctors here and many guests. Some of the guests, I fear, have an
aberration of the intellect, for they say strange things. I am well
contented. I have lived my life. But since no one will listen to my
marvellous experiences in the island of Thule--or if they listen at all
make a jest of them--I have written them down here for the service of
another and a wiser generation.

IN A LONDON GARDEN

CHAPTER I

THE RECLAMATION OF THE CAT-WALK: AND THE STORY OF "THE POOL IN THE
DESERT"

My London garden is not really mine. I have it for a period of years on
conditions arranged between two legal gentlemen, the tenant paying the
landlord's cost. Obviously the person who owns the property can better
afford to pay those costs than the man who has to hire it. And similarly
the man who is lending money on a mortgage can better afford to pay
costs than the man who has to borrow it. But the tenant pays, and the
borrower pays. It is a principle of the law that the poor man pays. But
this reflection, into which bitterness of spirit has led me, has nothing
whatever to do with my garden.