252 MYSTIC ISLES 



antidote he was weak. The hospital Mas a block away 

 from the lagoon. It was surrounded by a high stone 

 wall, and as it was built by the military, it was ugly and 

 had the ridiculous effrontery of the army and all its lack 

 of common sense. The iron gate was shut, and a sign 

 said, ''Sonnez s'il vous plait!'' A toothless French por- 

 tiere of thirty years let us in. All the doctors of Tahiti 

 had left the island for a few days on an excursion, and 

 the gay scientist who opened the champagne in his 

 pockets at the Tiare Hotel New Year's eve was in 

 command. He sat in an arm-chair in a littered office 

 and was smoking a pipe. His beard had a diameter of 

 a foot, and obviated any need of collar or shirt-band, for 

 it grew from his shoulder-blades up, so that his fore- 

 head, eyes, nose, and lips were white islands in a black 

 sea, and even his nose was not bare, for he had been 

 debited by Lovaina for his champagne as "Hair on 

 nose." 



He was reading a novel, and asked gi'uffly what we 

 were there for. I told him, and Baillon was assigned 

 a room at twelve francs a day, and was required to pay 

 for ten days in advance. 



The next morning I visited him. He could speak no 

 French, so I questioned Blackbeard in his office, where 

 we had an aperitif. He was voluble. 



"He has amoeban dysentery," said he. "It is con- 

 tagious and infectious, specifically, and it is fortunate 

 your friend is attended by me. I have had that disease 

 and know what 's what." 



I, too, had had it in the Philippine Islands, and I was 

 amazed that it was infectious. How could he have got 

 it? 



