life I sailed for Europe, and again visited
India, going to all the great ruins; then to the scenes of the vast
exploring fields of the Archeological Societies, in Arabia, on the
plains of Babylon, and in Syria. From there I turned to Egypt, the land
of the greatest mysteries on earth. I went up the Nile far beyond
Khartoum, and tried to interest myself in some of the interesting things
that men are constantly bringing to light, and which go to show the
great antiquity of men. I joined a caravan to traverse the White and the
Blue Nile, and to go over the trails made by Baker and Livingstone and
Stanley.

"Here, at last, seemed to be my work. It had enough of the charm in it
on account of the hazard which accompanied us on every step, and this
for the first time put me on my mettle to learn to dig out the hidden
secrets, which caused it to be called the 'Dark Continent.'

"Am I tiring you? Well, then, in company with another adventurous spirit
we traversed the most remote parts of that vast interior and met with
adventures which may some time interest you. Thus four years were spent,
without seeing civilization, and in a region where men hunted men for
the pleasure of it.

"I was hunting them, too, but it was not living men, but those who had
died thousands and thousands of years ago. But that terrible sickness,
the jungle fever, took hold of us, and when we emerged from the forests,
and found our way to the nearest settlement my companion died, and I was
again thrown back on the world.

"As soon as I could travel I sailed for New York, and the first man I
met was dear Jim Stratton, who insisted that I must take a position as
archeologist in the college with which I was formerly connected, but
this I declined, and seeing me in an emaciated condition suggested that
the position of professor of philosophy in the ship training school
would be the very place to give me the benefit of sea air and
employment--the latter, particularly, because he knew how I had always
been a fiend for work, and that I must be busy at something.

"I accepted, but a month before the ship sailed I was taken down with
another serious attack, with complications of diseases, and recovered a
week after the _Investigator_ sailed. I took the train for the west,
expecting to take advantage of the mild climate of California during the
winter, and when I reached San Francisco I was greeted at the hotel by
an old acquaintance who invited me to his room