the expenses I might incur, and I set a date for my return, allowing
no margin for a successful termination to the expedition.

"Never mind that," said the professor. "What I want you to do is to
get those birds here safely. Now, how many men will you take?"

"None," I replied, bluntly; "it's a useless expense, unless there is
something to bring back. If there is I'll wire you, you may be sure."

"Very well," said Professor Farrago, good-humoredly, "you shall have
all the assistance you may require. Can you leave to-night?"

The old gentleman was certainly prompt. I nodded, half-sulkily, aware
of his amusement.

"So," I said, picking up my hat, "I am to start north to find a place
called Black Harbor, where there is a man named Halyard who possesses,
among other household utensils, two extinct great auks--"

We were both laughing by this time. I asked him why on earth he
credited the assertion of a man he had never before heard of.

"I suppose," he replied, with the same half-apologetic, half-humorous
smile, "it is instinct. I feel, somehow, that this man Halyard _has_
got an auk--perhaps two. I can't get away from the idea that we are on
the eve of acquiring the rarest of living creatures. It's odd for a
scientist to talk as I do; doubtless you're shocked--admit it, now!"

But I was not shocked; on the contrary, I was conscious that the same
strange hope that Professor Farrago cherished was beginning, in spite