interest grew in his mind as he
listened to the story of it.

At the conclusion he re-lit his forgotten pipe.

"And it grows there--in plenty?" he said, in profound amazement.
"Steve, boy, do you know what it means to find a big source of that
stuff? Oh," he cried with a rush of enthusiasm, "it means--it means the
greatest thing for suffering humanity that's been discovered in a
thousand years. Here, I'll tell you. Oh, it's known to us folk, who've
studied dope as a special study. It's been found in places, but not in
much bigger quantities than would dope a fair-sized litter of piebald
kittens. It's sort of like radium, and half a pint of the distilled drug
would be worth over twenty-five thousand dollars. Maybe that'll tell you
how much there is of it on the market. But it's not that. Oh, no, it's a
heap bigger than that, boy. The plant itself is deadly in the green
state. It exhales a poison you couldn't stand for ten seconds. Dried,
its poison is killed stone dead. But it leaves behind it its priceless
narcotic properties. And these are perfectly innocuous, and even
health-giving. I don't need to worry you with the scientific side of it,
but it'll tell you something of what it means when I say it suspends
life, and you don't need to worry about the condition of the person
who's doped with it. You said those darn Indians live to a great age. I
believe it. You see, they live only _six months of the year_. They're
dead the rest. Or anyway their life is suspended. I seem to know the
name of that man Brand. I seem to recall it in association with
'Adresol.' Anyway, the work he's done mustn't be wasted. We'll have to
get an outfit. A big outfit that can't fail to grab the secret of those
neches upon Unaga. There's no small crowd of folk has any right to deny
the rest of the world the benefits of this wonderful drug. We----"

"That's how I reckon," Steve broke in quickly. "But the thing's to be
done the way I've figured."

"How's that?"

Steve was sitting up in his rocking-chair.

"I didn't hand you that stuff and my story of these things for pastime,
Doc. I guess I'd learnt all you've told me from the books and papers of
the boy's father. Knowing you for the man you are, and the way you most
generally try to make a ten-pound heart look like a sparrow's egg by
shouting at folks, I reckoned you'd see with me in this thing. That poor
feller Brand. As you say, his work isn't to be wasted. He's left behind
him a kiddie