"'Turn to the left,' I said. And then I added, 'You'll excuse me, but
what does Henkel want of you?'
"Scott didn't answer at first, but looked me over with his considering
eyes, and I remembered a collarless shirt and a four days' beard.
But Daurillac said, 'He wants butterflies of us, Monsieur. I am an
entomologist, and my friend he assists me.' He drew up very straight,
but his eyes were laughing at himself. Then we exchanged names and
shook hands, and I watched them going along the path to Henkel's.
"Next day Scott came down to the jetty. He sat on a stump and stared
at everything. He was ready enough to talk, in his guarded way. Yes,
he was new to the tropics; in some ways they were not what he had
expected, but he was not disappointed. He was here for the novelty,
the experience. But his friend, Louis Daurillac, had been in the
Indies, and with some of Meyer's men in Burma after orchids. Louis's
father was a great naturalist, and Louis was very clever. Yes, Henkel
had got hold of him through Meyer. He wanted some one to find this
butterfly for him--this golden butterfly at the headwaters of the
Mazzaron--some one whose name was yet in the making, some one he could
get cheap.... So Louis had come. He was very keen on it. Henkel was to
bear all costs, to supply food, ammunition, trade-goods, etc., and pay
them according to the number of the new specimens that they found. 'So
you see,' said Scott, with his clean smile, 'Louis and I can't lose by
it.
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