e, doctor, did you ever hear such a piece of
lunacy in your life?"

"Well, I don't know, Sir James. Lunacy?"

"Yes, sir; lunacy. Now, look here, doctor, don't you begin apologising
for these boys and taking their part, because if you do, sir, we are no
longer friends."

"Well, Sir James, it has always been an understood thing between us that
I was to be quite independent and have liberty to express my opinion in
matters connected with you and your boys."

"There, I knew it! You are going over to their side!" raged out Sir
James. "And I know how it will be: I shall be so upset that I shall
have a fearful fit of the gout after this, and be obliged to have in
that doctor with his wretched mixtures for the next fortnight. Well,
sir, I must listen to you, I suppose."

"Yes, Sir James, I think you had better," said the doctor, smiling; and
he glanced at Mark.

"Well, go on, then," cried Sir James.

"Oh, I say, father, don't," cried Mark sharply.

"Don't what, sir?" pretty well roared his father.

"I don't mind a nip or two, but you did give it to me then. It was like
a vice."

"Pooh, boy, pooh! You are not a baby, are you?"

"No, father, but--" began Mark, wriggling his shoulder.

"Hold your tongue, sir, and don't interrupt the doctor. Now, doctor,
what were you going to say?"

"I was going to say, Sir James, that I fully believe that a fit of the
gout must be very painful--"

"Oh, you think so, do you?"

"Yes, Sir James, and I think also that you are not troubled with many.
Of course we are not going to imitate Mr Pickwick, and a wheelbarrow is
quite out of the question."

"Now, look here, sir," cried Sir James angrily--but somehow there was a
want of reality in his tones--"don't you begin to suggest
impossibilities. I think I know what you are aiming at."

"I should not be surprised, sir, if you do. Now, of course if we went
on this expedition, or expeditions, we should be going through forests
often nearly impassable; but I think I have read--"

"Oh, yes, I know," said Sir James shortly, and the boys watched the
doctor with eager eyes, and as they caught his he gave to each a keen
encouraging look; "you have read everything--a deal too much, I think,"
he grumbled, almost inaudibly.

"--that," continued the doctor, making believe that he had not heard the
baronet's tetchy words, "great use is made of the blacks in Africa and
India, who are quite accustomed to using a litter for the sportsm