like the face. And through all was a sense of power, dark and almost
mediaeval. Secret, evilly wise and inhuman, he looked a being apart,
whom men might seek for help in dark purposes.

"What do you want--medicine?" he muttered at last, wiping his beard and
mouth with the palm of his hand, and the palm on his knees.

Rawley looked at the ominous-looking bottles on the shelves above the old
man's head; at the forceps, knives, and other surgical instruments on the
walls--they at least were bright and clean--and, taking the cheroot
slowly from his mouth, he said:

"Shin-plasters are what I want. A friend of mine has caught his leg in a
trap."

The old man gave an evil chuckle at the joke, for a "shin-plaster" was a
money-note worth a quarter of a dollar.

"I've got some," he growled in reply, "but they cost twenty-five cents
each. You can have them for your friend at the price."

"I want eight thousand of them from you. He's hurt pretty bad," was the
dogged, dry answer.

The shaggy eyebrows of the quack drew together, and the eyes peered out
sharply through half-closed lids. "There's plenty of wanting and not
much getting in this world," he rejoined, with a leer of contempt, and
spat on the floor, while yet the furtive watchfulness of the eyes
indicated a mind ill at ease.