"
"Take your time," said Meredith, quietly and soothingly; "light that
cigar again and lie down. There is no hurry."
Durnovo obeyed him meekly.
"Tell me," he said, "have you ever heard of Simiacine?"
"I cannot say that I have," replied Jack. "What is it for, brown
boots or spasms?"
"It is a drug, the most expensive drug in the market. And they must
have it, they cannot do without it, and they cannot find a
substitute. It is the leaf of a shrub, and your hatful is worth a
thousand pounds."
"Where is it to be found?" asked Jack Meredith. "I should like
some--in a sack."
"Ah, you may laugh now, but you won't when you hear all about it.
The scientific chaps called it Simiacine, because of an old African
legend which, like all those things, has a grain of truth in it.
The legend is, that the monkeys first found out the properties of
the leaf, and it is because they live on it that they are so strong.
Do you know that a gorilla's arm is not half so thick as yours, and
yet he would take you and snap your backbone across his knee; he
would bend a gun-barrel as you would bend a cane, merely by the turn
of his wrist. That is Simiacine. He can hang on to a tree with one
leg and tackle a leopard with his bare hands--that's Simiacine. At
home, in England and in Germany, they are only just beginning to
find out its properties; it seems that it can bring a man back to
life when he is more than half dead.
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