imself in this world, and what else can I do if my
friends will not come to my aid when I want them? Messieurs, you may
believe that Herbert de Lernac is quite as formidable when he is
against you as when he is with you, and that he is not a man to go to
the guillotine until he has seen that every one of you is en route for
New Caledonia. For your own sake, if not for mine, make haste,
Monsieur de ----, and General ----, and Baron ---- (you can fill up the
blanks for yourselves as you read this). I promise you that in the
next edition there will be no blanks to fill.

"P.S.--As I look over my statement there is only one omission which I
can see. It concerns the unfortunate man McPherson, who was foolish
enough to write to his wife and to make an appointment with her in New
York. It can be imagined that when interests like ours were at stake,
we could not leave them to the chance of whether a man in that class of
life would or would not give away his secrets to a woman. Having once
broken his oath by writing to his wife, we could not trust him any
more. We took steps therefore to insure that he should not see his
wife. I have sometimes thought that it would be a kindness to write to
her and to assure her that there is no impediment to her marrying
again."

The Beetle-Hunter

A curious experience? said the Doctor. Yes, my friends, I have had one
very curious experience. I never expect to have another, for it is
against all doctrines of chances that two such events would befall any
one man in a single lifetime. You may believe me or not, but the thing
happened exactly as I tell it.

I had just become a medical man, but I had not started in practice, and
I lived in rooms in Gower Street. The street has been renumbered since
then, but it was in the only house which has a bow-window, upon the
left-hand side as you go down from the Metropolitan Station. A widow
named Murchison kept the house at that time, and she had three medical
students and one engineer as lodgers. I occupied the top room, which
was the cheapest, but cheap as it was it was more than I could afford.
My small resources were dwindling away, and every week it became more
necessary that I should find something to do. Yet I was very unwilling
to go into general practice, for my tastes were all in the direction of
science, and especially of zoology, towards which I had always a strong
leaning. I had almost given the fight up and resigned my