"This man Rovinski is a scientific jackal; he has ambitions of the very highest kind, and he seeks to gratify them by fraud and villainy.

It is now nearly two years since I have found out that he has been shadowing me, endeavoring to discover what I am doing and how I am doing it; and the moment he does get a practical and working knowledge of anything, he will go on with the business on my lines as far as he can.

Perhaps he may succeed, and, in any case, he will be almost certain to ruin my chances of success--that is, if I were not willing to buy him off.

He would be pretty sure to try blackmail if he found he could not make good use of the knowledge he had stolen." "The wretch!" cried Margaret.

"Do you suppose he hopes to snatch from you the discovery of the pole ?" "That seems obvious," replied Roland, "and it's what Sammy thinks.