"'Doctor, you don't mean that?'
"'But I do; and if I were a younger man, I would thrash him soundly for his mischief.'
"'Ah, Doctor,' I answered, 'Perodii is having his day, but retribution may be coming swiftly.'
"'Has come, but too late for me. The King has banished him from here.'
"'A worse fate than that awaits him, or I am no prophet,' I added, in a tone of hatred.
"'But your plans, Doctor?'
"'We are going to make exhaustive collections of the fauna and the flora of this planet. Temple is going to investigate its commercial resources, visiting all the great centres of industry, acquiring information useful to the manufacturers of Earth, and at the same time imparting whatever knowledge he may possess that is likely to be welcome here. You, Graham, might do worse than go with Temple—an engineer would be a useful companion. Ah, Graham, we have years of work before us—years. Here, in my glory of triumph, I positively pity the poor scientists of Earth, turning over and over their few theories and time-worn specimens, each with little better to do than to spend his life and efforts in seeking to overturn the views of his contemporaries on this question and on that. It is almost an event, nowadays, in the scientific world at home, for any real good new species to be discovered; and yet here a world, an entire world, crammed full of new and curious forms, lies before me!'
"'You see, the Doctor has not been idle,' said Temple.
"'Indeed he has not,' I answered, 'and all you tell me interests me exceedingly.' At any other time I should have felt enchanted whilst listening to dear old Doctor Hermann's plans and projects, but this morning I heard all that was said like one in a dream. I was heartily glad when the Doctor took Temple off to hear of a wonderful account of some monster insect, whose habitat was in a valley near Edos.'
"'I suppose you are engaged for the day, Graham?' said Temple, slily, as the two walked away.