“Do you think he will do so?”

“Why not?  I have come here to do him a service.  He has no goods.  I have.  He has no men with him.  I have.  If I do a friendly part by him, will he not do a friendly part by me?  What says the poet?—­

Nor hope to find
A friend, but who has found a friend in thee. 
All like the purchase; few the price will pay
And this makes friends such wonders here below.

I have paid the purchase, by coming so far to do him a service.  But I think, from what I have seen of him last night, that he is not such a niggard and misanthrope as I was led to believe.  He exhibited considerable emotion, despite the monosyllabic greeting, when he shook my hand.  If he were a man to feel annoyance at any person coming after him, he would not have received me as he did, nor would he ask me to live with him, but he would have surlily refused to see me, and told me to mind my own business.  Neither does he mind my nationality; for ‘here,’ said he, ’Americans and Englishmen are the same people.  We speak the same language and have the same ideas.’  Just so, Doctor; I agree with you.  Here at least, Americans and Englishmen shall be brothers, and, whatever I can do for you, you may command me freely.”

I dressed myself quietly, intending to take a stroll along the Tanganika before the Doctor should rise; opened the door, which creaked horribly on its hinges, and walked out to the veranda.

“Halloa, Doctor!—­you up already?  I hope you have slept well? "

“Good-morning, Mr. Stanley!  I am glad to see you.  I hope you rested well.  I sat up late reading my letters.  You have brought me good and bad news.  But sit down.  “He made a place for me by his side.  “Yes, many of my friends are dead.  My eldest son has met with a sad accident—­that is, my boy Tom; my second son, Oswell, is at college studying medicine, and is doing well I am told.  Agnes, my eldest daughter, has been enjoying herself in a yacht, with `Sir Paraffine’ Young and his family.  Sir Roderick, also, is well, and expresses a hope that he will soon see me.  You have brought me quite a budget.”

The man was not an apparition, then, and yesterday’s scenes were not the result of a dream! and I gazed on him intently, for thus I was assured he had not run away, which was the great fear that constantly haunted me as I was journeying to Ujiji.

“Now, Doctor,” said I, “you are, probably, wondering why I came here?”

“It is true,” said he; “I have been wondering.  I thought you, at first, an emissary of the French Government, in the place of Lieutenant Le Saint, who died a few miles above Gondokoro.  I heard you had boats, plenty of men, and stores, and I really believed you were some French officer, until I saw the American flag; and, to tell you the truth, I was rather glad it was so, because I could not have talked to him in French; and if he did not know English, we had been a pretty pair of white men in Ujiji!  I did not like to ask you yesterday, because I thought it was none of my business.”