Leyden led the way aft to the grating beside the hand steering-gear—the place where we usually held our sessions of swapping experiences. I drew out a fresh cigar and the German lit his big porcelain pipe, an apparatus especially adapted to the needs of the _raconteur_, as one could take a puff or two and then bank the fire until the next stopping-place.
“It was several years ago,” he began. “I had been sent up the Orinoco by an American university, a new one in the Middle West, to which some sausage-maker had given a fortune to build and stock a museum of natural history. The president of the university sent for me; I can never sufficiently admire the capability of this young man for his position. He took me into the museum and showed me at least a kilometer of empty shelves.
“‘This place must be chock-a-block by commencement time,’ said he. ‘I have four men at work in North America, two in South America, four in Europe——’ and so on, all over the face of the earth. ‘I wish you to take charge of South America, north of the Amazon. There is a man in the Amazon Valley chasing up the fish and reptiles, and one in Peru, out for mammals. You are to get after the birds and insects; of course, if you should happen to run across anything rare that’s not in your line just gather it in, anyway.’ He glanced at some typewritten memoranda. ‘That ought to give us an A1 stock of South American goods, and before we get through if we don’t have Putney University bluffed off the boards _I’ll_ go to h——’”
Leyden paused, and I heard his china stove splutter as he laughed softly.
“It was a good outfit, that of mine—the best I have ever had. There were four large boats, with a crew of five men in each. As quantity was required as well as quality, I stocked up as if for a trading expedition. You know, Doctor, natives are themselves born collectors; moreover, an observant savage knows a rare thing when he sees it. I have had a large experience with aborigines and know the capriciousness of their tastes. The objects which one would expect to attract them they often positively refuse to look at, while for something else they are ready to do murder. If a man is fortunate enough to strike a popular fancy he can buy a whole tribe. And that is what I proposed to do.
