"Mister," he said, "jest read that out loud, please."

The passage he indicated was the famous chapter beginning:

"Is the mammoth extinct? Is the dingue extinct? Probably. And
yet the aborigines of British America maintain the contrary.
Probably both the mammoth and the dingue are extinct; but
until expeditions have penetrated and explored not only the
unknown region in Alaska but also that hidden table-land
beyond the Graham Glacier and the Hudson Mountains, it will
not be possible to definitely announce the total extinction of
either the mammoth or the dingue."

When I had read it, slowly, for his benefit, he brought his hand down
smartly on one knee and nodded rapidly.

"Mister," he said, "that gent knows a thing or two, and don't you
forgit it!" Then he demanded, abruptly, how I knew he hadn't been
behind the Graham Glacier.

I explained.

"Shucks!" he said; "there's a road five miles wide inter that there
table-land. Mister, I ain't been in New York long; I come inter port a
week ago on the _Arctic Belle_, whaler. I was in the Hudson range when
that there Graham Glacier bust up--"

"What!" I exclaimed.

"Didn't you know it?" he asked. "Well, mebbe it ain't in the papers,