THE LONG TRAIL 



each of us, and most satisfactory it proved 

 to all. He also brought Marcus Aurelius 

 and Epictetus, but when he tried to read 

 them during the descent of the Rio da 

 Duvida, they only served to fill him with 

 indignation at their futility. Some trans- 

 lations of Greek plays, not those of Gil- 

 bert Murray, for which he had unstinted 

 praise, met with but little better success, 

 and we were nearly as badly off for read- 

 ing matter as we were for provisions. I 

 had brought along a selection of Portu- 

 guese classics and a number of French 

 novels. The former were useless to 

 father, but Henri Bordeaux and Maurice 

 Leblanc were grist to the mill. It was 

 father's first introduction to Arsene, and 

 he thoroughly enjoyed it — he liked the 

 style, although for matter he preferred 

 Conan Doyle. Father never cared very 

 much about French novels — the French 

 51 



