"However, I told our guide, who seems pretty smart at such matters, to take precautions; and I understand that he fixed things so it would be hard to follow our tracks.

You may remember that he took us across all the bare rocks he could find, and made us wade up a creek.

Besides, as you seem to have played on your friends' superstitions, they may not find anything remarkable in your disappearing mysteriously." "You're a capable man," Clarke laughed.

"Anyway, I find this case appeals to my professional interest.

For one thing, it's curious that the malaria should attack him in a severe form after a lengthy absence from the tropical jungles where he caught it.