Curry him and trim him and clothe him in evening dress and his physical
appearance would make a sensation at the Court of St. James. Only his
English required manicuring.
The longer I looked at him the better I comprehended that detaining hand
from the hammock. _Fabas indulcet fames_.
Then, with a shock, it rushed over me that there evidently had been some
ground for this man's letters to me concerning a herd of frozen mammoths.
Professor Bottomly had not only married him to obtain the information but
here she was still camping on the marsh!
"James Skaw," I said, tremulously, "where are those mammoths?"
He looked at me, then made a vague gesture:
"Under the mud--everywhere--all around us."
"Has _she_ seen them?"
"Yes, I showed her about a hundred. There's one under you. Look! you can
see him through the slush."
"Ach Gott!" burst from Dr. Fooss, and he tottered in his saddle. Lezard,
frightfully pale, passed a shaking hand over his brow. As for me my hair
became dank with misery, for there directly under my feet, the vast hairy
bulk of a mammoth lay dimly visible through the muddy ice.
What I had done to myself when I was planning to do Professor Bottomly
suddenly burst upon me in all its hideous proportions.
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