The Argosy, Vol. XXIV No. 2 — page 166: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

358 THE MUTINY ON THE FLYING CLOUD. next Jay; Mrs. Henderson recovered a few hours later ; but as for the doctor, it was fully a week before he entirely shook off the effects of the attack. In less than twenty four hours from his first seizure he had sufficiently recovered to give an explanation of the singular affair to the following effect. He had, it would seem, been investigating the nature of a hitherto unknown plant growing in considerable abundance upon the island, anc had found it to possess several very remarkable qualities, some at least of which he be- lieved might be rendered of the utmost value in medical practice. Anxious to make his researches thoroughly exhaustive he had, upon the day of the catastrophe, been distilling the essence of the plant ; and, his task completed, he was in the act of bottling the extract for future examination when its peculiarly pleasing fragrance caused him to take several deep inhalations from the flask. He had hardly done so when he felt his strength rapidly leaving him, and he had only time to deposit the phial, open, upon his table and stagger to a chair when something very like a fit of paralysis seized him. He at once cried out for help ; but by the time that his cries had evoked a response his nerves had begun to give way, and ina very few minutes he was enduring such an agony as words utterly failed him to describe. His first act, when he was sufficiently recovered to move about once more, was to secure the phial containing the liquid which had done all the mis- chief, and—with Nicholls to manage the punt—go right out to sea, where, hastily uncorking the bottle, he flung it as far from him to leeward as pos- sible, at the same moment ordering his companion to give way for home again with all speed. This was done whilst the terror of his attack was still upon him; but it was not in the nature of a man of Henderson’s training to give way for long to so irrational a fear as that which prompted this action, and in less than a month afterward he had, with the adoption of all proper precautions, secured another and far more liberal supply of the singular essence, with a view to future experiments and analysis. | CHAPTER XXIX.—THE MALAYS. MEANWHILE, the work at the shipyard was pushed forward with all pos- sible energy, and to such good purpose that in an incredibly short time, all things considered, the timbers for the new boat were raised into position and secured, the planking carried up tothe gunwale, the deck laid and calked, the . joiners’ work advanced, and the spars put in hand. Everybody was in the highest possible spirits, for they saw the end of their labors rapidly approaching; they were, moreover, not only pleased but absolutely proud of their work, for, though of course only amateurs, they had wrought so carefully and conscientiously that everything was finished off not only as strongly but also as neatly as if they had every one served an apprenticeship to the handicraft. Then the little vessel herself was a perfect beauty; graceful in shape, notwithstanding ‘her extreme breadth of beam; powerful, yet buoyant; and Comichook 3