"Humph!" grunted Big Jim. "What do you collect?" he inquired, regarding his visitor shrewdly.
"Bushmasters," responded Professor Ditson, simply.
"Come again," returned Big Jim, much puzzled, "I don't quite get you. What are bushmasters?"
"The bushmaster is the largest, rarest, and deadliest of South American serpents"
"The bushmaster," announced Professor Ditson, with more animation than he had yet shown, "is the largest, the rarest and the deadliest of South American serpents. It attains a length of over twelve feet and has fangs an inch and a half long. You will hardly believe me," he went on, tapping Mr. Donegan's knee with a long, bony forefinger, "but there is not a single living specimen in captivity at present, even in our largest cities."
The lumber-king regarded the scientist with undisguised astonishment.
"Professor Amandus Ditson," he announced solemnly, "so far as I'm concerned, there can continue to be a lack of bushmasters not only in our great cities, but everywhere else. Snakes of any kind are absolutely nothing in my young life."
"Tut! tut!" responded the professor, reprovingly. "I think that I could convince you that you are wrong in your unfortunate aversion to reptiles."