"It is all Mr. Christianson's doing," she said. "You must thank him."
I did so, and then proposed that we should set about our work at once.
"In the first place, Mr. Christianson," I began, "have you had any symptoms of the disease yourself?"
"Not one! Since it started I have been as well as I remember ever to have been in my life."
"When were you vaccinated last?"
I put the question with some little timidity, for I feared lest by so doing I might wake some unpleasant memory in the old man's mind. But, whatever his past may have been,—and there were few men in the settlement, I afterwards found, who had not more or less of a romantic history,—he answered without hesitation:
"I was vaccinated in Liverpool, twelve years ago next March."
"Then, with your permission, I'll do it for you again. After that we'll call up the heads of the village and I'll operate on them."
So saying, I unpacked my things, and, having done so, vaccinated my second in command. When this was accomplished, he gave me a list he had prepared of the half-dozen principal inhabitants. They were immediately sent for, and as soon as they arrived my position was explained to them in a short speech by Alie.
"Now, gentlemen," I said, when her address was finished, "in view of the serious nature of our position and the necessity for a well-organized attack upon the disease which has so decimated your population, I propose to enrol you as my staff. You will each of you have special duties assigned to you, and I need not say that I feel sure you will fulfil them to the very best of your ability. Before we go any further, as I hear none of you have taken the disease, I propose vaccinating you all, as I have just done Mr. Christianson. When that has been accomplished we will get properly to work."