him over again.

"You make too free, I think," she rebuked him.

"A doctor's privilege."

"I am not your patient. Please to remember it in future." And on that,
unquestionably angry, she departed.

"Now is she a vixen or am I a fool, or is it both?" he asked the blue
vault of heaven, and then went into the shed.

It was to be a morning of excitements. As he was leaving an hour or so
later, Whacker, the younger of the other two physicians, joined him--an
unprecedented condescension this, for hitherto neither of them had
addressed him beyond an occasional and surly "good-day!"

"If you are for Colonel Bishop's, I'll walk with you a little way,
Doctor Blood," said he. He was a short, broad man of five-and-forty with
pendulous cheeks and hard blue eyes.

Peter Blood was startled. But he dissembled it.

"I am for Government House," said he.

"Ah! To be sure! The Governor's lady." And he laughed; or perhaps he
sneered. Peter Blood was not quite certain. "She encroaches a deal upon
your time, I hear. Youth and good looks, Doctor Blood! Youth and
good looks! They are inestimable advantages in our profession as in
others--particularly where the ladies are concerned."

Peter stared at him. "If you mean what you seem to mean, you had better
say it to Governor Steed. It may amuse him."

"You surely misapprehend me."

"I hope so."

"You're so very hot, now!" The doctor linked his arm through Peter's.
"I protest I desire to be your friend--to serve you. Now, listen."
Instinctively his voice grew lower. "This slavery in which you find
yourself must be singularly irksome to a man of parts such as yourself."

"What intuitions!" cried sardonic Mr. Blood. But the doctor took him
literally.

"I am no fool, my dear doctor. I know a man when I see one, and often I
can tell his thoughts."

"If you can tell me mine, you'll persuade me of it," said Mr. Blood.

Dr. Whacker drew still closer to him as they stepped along the wharf. He
lowered his voice to a still more confidential tone. His hard blue eyes
peered up into the swart, sardonic face of his companion, who was a head
taller than himself.

"How often have I not seen you staring out over the sea, your soul in
your eyes! Don't I know what you are thinking? If you could escape from
this hell of slavery, you could exercise the profession of which you
are an ornament as a free man with pleasure and profit to yourself. The
world is large. There are many nations besides En