of vanity and trust in himself.




CHAPTER III.

THE EGYPTIANS

"Steal! to be sure they may; and egad, serve your best thoughts as
gypsies do stolen children,--disfigure them to make them pass for
their own."

--Sheridan.


In order to comprehend the relationship of this strangely mated pair, we
must go back five or six years to a certain day when this same Doctor
Aesculapius rode slowly down the main street of a small city in Western
Pennsylvania, and then out along a rugged country highway. A couple of
miles brought him to the camp of a band of gypsies.

A thin column of smoke ascending from a fire which seemed almost too
lazy to burn, curled slowly into the air.

Around this campfire was a picturesque group of persons, all of whom,
with a single exception, vanished like a covey of quail at the approach
of the stranger. The man who stood his ground was a truly sinister
being. He was tall, thin and angular; his clothing was scant and ragged,
his face bronzed with exposure to the sun. A thin moustache of