"It will be all the more my duty to do so," said he, "when the instruments are placed in my hands. What, after all, is the healing of a few blistered feet, compared with the scourge of leprosy, eczema, itch, psoriasis, and what not? And, as for the money itself, what is it?"
He preached his sermon. The securing of the world's army contracts was only a means towards the shimmering ideal. It would clear the path of obstacles and leave the Cure free to pursue its universal way as consolatrix afflictorum.
The traveler finished his peach, and accepted another which his host hospitably selected for him.
"All the same, sir," said he, "this is the biggest thing you've struck. May I ask how you came to strike it?"
"Like all great schemes, it had humble beginnings," said Sypher, in comfortable postprandial mood, unconsciously flattered by the admiration of his subordinate. "Newton saw an apple drop to the ground: hence the theory of gravitation. The glory of Tyre and Sidon arose from the purple droppings of a little dog's mouth who had been eating shell fish. The great Cunarders came out of the lid of Stephenson's family kettle. A soldier happened to tell me that his mother had applied Sypher's Cure to his blistered heels—and that was the origin of the scheme."
He leaned back in his chair, stretched out his legs and put one foot over the other. He immediately started back with a cry of pain.
"I was forgetting my own infernal blister," said he. "About a square inch of skin is off and all the flesh round, it is as red as a tomato."
"You'll have to be careful," advised the traveler. "What are you using for it?"
"Using for it? Why, good heavens, man, the Cure! What else?"
He regarded Dennymede as if he were insane,' and Dennymede in his confusion blushed as red as the blistered heel.