Archie:
how clever a blackguard needs to be when he's going to do anything
wrong! Talk about Fate! See how busy the old girl has been here! The
blackguard, with all his crafty cunning, hides her somewhere close to
the place where two of my best patients live, and they have had an eye
upon her ever since, and just when we were in our most despairing time
come and tell us of her fate."

"Yes, sir; and now--"

"Stop a minute, my boy. I just wanted to say to you, I am ready to draw
the teeth of all the Malays in the district without fee, and I am
prepared to say that some of them are as grateful as we can be
ourselves."

"Yes," cried Archie; "but business is business."

"Thank you, boy; thank you for pulling me up. I can't help it just now.
Poor Minnie is to me just as dear as if she were my own child, and I am
quite overturned--hysterical as a woman, more shame for me! Here, it
was only the other day you came whining to me about being all wrong
because you are such a boy. You said you thought you were not as you
should be--that you wanted to be a man. Didn't I tell you, sir, to
wait--that all you wanted was a little real trouble, and that it would
come fast enough and make a man of you? Well, do you feel like a man
now?"

"No, sir, not quite; but I feel man enough to start to-night as one of a
strong party to go and rescue Minnie Heath, even if we die in doing the
good work."

"Well said, my lad; and I'll go with you, and you sha'n't die, any of
you, if I know anything of wounds. There, I'm pulled up now, and ready
for anything.--Maria, my dear, see to these people--rest and
refreshment, anything they want--while I'm gone; and you can set the
girl to work talking to this Dula here. Make her your interpreter.--As
for you--here, I know what you'll like."

The Doctor took a cigar-box from the shelf, snatched out three or four,
pressed them into the fisherman's hand, and then almost dragged him out
into the veranda, where he thrust him into a cane chair and gave him a
light. "One moment, Archie;" and he spoke to the man, who was smiling
up at him. "That's right, Archie; they came in a boat. Come along up
to the Residency.--No; I'll go there. You run on to the Major and ask
for orders. He'll find us a little detachment to take with us in the
Resident's boat. This means good business, my lad, for we have found
out the real seat of the disease."

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

THE MAGAZINE.

"You don't