"I really almost envy your trip," he said, "although it will be
fraught with danger. Still you go well armed and provisioned, and
from what I have heard of you, you are not the sort of boys to let a
few obstacles upset you."
While they were still talking and waiting for breakfast to be
announced they were joined by a singular figure. It was that of a
white man in rather shabby ducks and crowned, as was M. Desplaines,
with a huge, white pith helmet. Over one shoulder he carried a
green butterfly net and under one arm he had tucked a tin box.
Round his waist was a leather belt from which hung, in addition to a
revolver and cartridges, a glass bottle with a wide stopper with a
chloroformed sponge reposing in the bottom. It did not need the
introduction of the newcomer by M. Desplaines as Professor Ajax
Wiseman, to tell the boys that Dr. Wiseman was a naturalist.
"My dear professor, what are you doing here?" exclaimed M.
Desplaines as soon as the introductions were over.
"I arrived this morning from Grand Bassam on a coasting schooner,"
replied the professor, carefully setting down his tin box. "I have
a remarkable specimen of the Gladiolus Gorgeosi in there," he
remarked importantly. "I am contemplating a trip into the interior
via the Bia River and came to you to see if you could arrange
transportation.
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