and thieving food from the villages by night. Only weapon, a spear.
No clothes, no money. Nothing. My face was my fortune, as the saying
is. And just a squeak of eight thousand pounds of gold--fifth share.
But the natives cut up rusty, thank goodness, because they thought
it was him had driven their luck away."


8. THE NEW ACCELERATOR

Certainly, if ever a man found a guinea when he was looking for a pin
it is my good friend Professor Gibberne. I have heard before of
investigators overshooting the mark, but never quite to the extent
that he has done. He has really, this time at any rate, without any
touch of exaggeration in the phrase, found something to revolutionise
human life. And that when he was simply seeking an all-round nervous
stimulant to bring languid people up to the stresses of these pushful
days. I have tasted the stuff now several times, and I cannot do
better than describe the effect the thing had on me. That there are
astonishing experiences in store for all in search of new sensations
will become apparent enough.

Professor Gibberne, as many people know, is my neighbour in Folkestone.
Unless my memory plays me a trick, his portrait at various ages
has already appeared in The Strand Magazine--I think late in 1899;
but I am unable to look it up because I have lent that volume to
some one who has never sent it back. The reader may, perhaps,
recall the high forehead and the singularly long black eyebrows
that give such a Mephistophelian touch to his face. He occupies one
of those pleasant little detached houses in the mixed style that
make the western end of the Upper Sandgate Road so interesting.