The Launching of Roger Brook

now the reason for that angry cast-down look that I saw upon your face when first I had the temerity to address you.'

'You are perhaps acquainted with the Chevalier de Roubec?' Roger began. 'He was the man in red, who was in here yestere'en.'

The Doctor nodded. 'I have had no speech with him, but have seen him about here in these past few days. A merry-looking fellow enough but one in whom, from his physiognomy, I would put little trust.'

Roger made a grimace. 'Alas, I lack your capacity for judging faces, Monsieur le Docteur. I put my faith in him at sad cost to myself.' He then went on to describe his previous night's adventures and the manner in which he had been robbed that morning. Warming to the tale as he told it he realised that there was no longer any point in concealing the manner in which he had obtained the jewels, and that if the Doctor's advice was to be of any value to him he would be wise to give a complete picture of his circumstances; so he told him the reason for his leaving home and that he was now stranded in France with very little money.

When he had done, old Aristotle assessed the position shrewdly. 'I fear, my young friend, that you have little prospect of recovering your property unless you go to the police, and your reasons for not wishing to do so are soundly conceived. As to your future, it should not be impossible for you to find a Captain who would let you work your passage across the Channel, more especially if you can offer him a pourboire of a louis or two for allowing you to do so. But once in England you will indeed be between Scylla and Charybdis. Life is a hard taskmaster for those who, having no trade by which to make a livelihood, must beg or earn their bread as best they can. My earnest advice to you is to sink your pride and make your peace with your father.'

'Nay, that I'll not do,' said Roger stubbornly. 'Few fates that could befall me would be worse than being sent to sea. Moreover, my honour is involved in this. I set too much store by the opinion of the lady who gave me the jewels to return home with my tail between my legs after an absence of a bare four days, even if I could find anyone to give me passage this very evening.'

'While I admire your spirit I deplore your reasoning,' replied the Doctor. 'Would that I could propose a further alternative, but alas! I see none.'

For a few moments they sat in silence, then Roger said: 'But tell me now in what way fortune has done you a mischief?'

'I am, alas! the author of my own misfortunes,' Aristotle Fenelon held up his now half-empty glass of brandy. 'Youth has many pleasures, age but few; and it has become my habit at certain seasons to indulge myself with this amber fluid which removes all care. More, I must confess it or the tale lacks point, at such times one dram begets the desire for another dram, and that for yet another. My virtuous resolutions gradually become things of little consequence. I remain addlepated for sometimes days at a stretch, and at last woefully regain full consciousness of my circumstances to realise that I have drunk away my last sou.'

'I take it,' put in Roger, 'that this morning is such a day, since you are beyond question sober now?'

'You are right, my young friend,' the Doctor acknowledged. 'Yet this morning finds me in a far worse pass than is usual on such occasions.'

'How so?'

'As you may have already assumed, I am a journeyman doctor. Few men know France better than myself, since I have tramped its length and breadth many times in the past two-score years. I go from village to village selling my simples and my remedies to all whom I can induce to buy. I'll not deny that many of them are drastic in their effects. They needs must be, or the poor folk who buy them would feel that they had been cheated of their money. Often one must put gunpowder in their stomachs quite unnecessarily to persuade them that they have been treated at all. It is on occasion a question of kill or cure, and sometimes their last case is worse than their first. Yet, as God is my witness, I rarely make mistakes, and bring much relief from suffering to the less fortunate of our fellow-creatures who could not afford a treatment at all were it not for such wayside physicians as myself.'

There was nothing new to Roger in all this, since quack doctors who stumped the countryside and put up their booths at fairs were then as common in England as in France, and for some little time past he had guessed the way in which Dr. Aristotle Fenelon earned his living. So he said:

'Why, then, having come to the end of your profits do you not set out again to earn some more?'

'Ah, that is just the trouble, Monsieur.' The doctor's watery blue eyes held his for a moment. 'At the end of every month or so, on reaching a large town, it is my custom to give myself a little holiday. Of the pleasant but profitless way in which I spend these brief seasons of leisure I have already told you. But each time before I set out again I must buy drugs, greases and potent waters, pots, bottles and vials wherewith to make up the stock in trade that I carry with me. It has always been my practice to put aside a few louis from my last journey especially for this purpose. But now I am undone, for in a tipsy moment I raided my reserve and have' drunk that away, too.'

' 'Twas a most unfortunate impulse. Did some special circumstance lead to it? Or was it an urge that at times has overcome you before?'

' 'Tis only on rare occasions that I have been so far lost to all good sense; but not the first time, I confess.'

'It seems then, that your remedy lies in proceeding as you have done on similar awkward occasions in the past?'

Doctor Aristotle sighed. 'A sound if uninspired judgment, my young friend, and one that brings me little comfort. It condemns me to fall back on straightforward surgery for a while, and sometimes one can visit half-a- dozen hamlets without finding a tooth to draw, or a broken bone to set. In the meantime I must eke out a most miserable existence until I can build up a small capital wherewith to buy drugs and oint­ments once more.'

Again there fell a short silence and it seemed that neither of these companions in misfortune had been able to benefit the other, except in the slight comfort gained from the relation of their woes.

At length the Doctor twiddled his now empty glass and coughed. 'Would you. Monsieur? I hesitate to ask. But no; it 'Would be ungenerous in me to take advantage of the good nature of one to whom every franc must now be a matter of concern.'

Roger had taken a liking to the old man, instinctively feeling him to be kind and wise, if weak; and the price of another couple of drinks could make little difference to his prospects of getting back to England; so he went out of the room and ordered them.

When he returned the Doctor thanked him gravely and added, as if on a sudden thought, 'Would it be indiscreet, Monsieur, to inquire how much money you have left?'

Seeing no harm in disclosing his resources, Roger replied: 'Something over four louis—about thirty-seven crowns to be exact.'

' 'Twould be enough,' the Doctor murmured.

'Enough for what,. Monsieur?'

'Why, to purchase a new stock of medicines and unguents.'

Roger smiled. 'Much as I would like to relieve you of your cares, you must see that it is out of the question for me to lend you any money at the moment.'

'Nay, I had no thought of begging a loan,' the Doctor hastened to reassure him. ' 'Twas a very different project that I had in mind. You say you are fully resolved that, come what may, you will not throw yourself upon the mercy of your father, and the only alternative that you can suggest is to seek a precarious livelihood tramping the English countryside. Yet living is far cheaper and more agreeable in France. Moreover, I could at least guarantee you a roof over your head, victuals of fair quality and an occupation which never lacks for interest and variety. I have the knowledge, you have enough capital to set us on the road. Why should we not form a partnership?'

For a moment Roger did not reply. Nothing could have been further from his own vague imaginings about his future, and such a course could certainly not lead to securing an influential position in London.

'Come now!' Doctor Aristotle went on more eagerly, 'I would not seek to persuade you against your better judgment, but surely this is the solution to both our difficulties. The moment I set eyes on you I had a feeling that you were a young man with quick wits and of good address. It is not only your capital that I crave, but also your company. When your French is improved, you can harangue the little crowds that gather round my stand in curiosity, and you will find it most fascinating sport to talk even the most sceptical among them into buying one of our remedies for some, oft-imagined, complaint. And the women, too, why I would more than double my sales of skin creams and eye lotions were I able to point to that handsome counten­ance of yours as proof of their efficacy.