Page:Guy Boothby--A Bid for Fortune.djvu/185

Rh moment I'm inclined to believe it's going to continue. Out with it! Are you home-sick, or has the monotony of this voyage been too much for you?"

He looked into my face rather curiously I thought, and then said:

"Mr. Hatteras, I'm afraid you'll think me an awful idiot when I do tell you, but the truth is I've got Dr. Nikola's face on my brain, and do what I will I cannot rid myself of it. Those great, dark, searching eyes, as we saw them look up at us in that terrible room, have got on my nerves and I can think of nothing else. They haunt me night and day!"

"Oh, that's all fancy!" I cried. "Why should you be frightened of him? Nikola, in spite of his demoniacal cleverness, is only a man, and even then you may consider we've seen the last of him. So cheer up, take as much exercise as you possibly can, and believe me, you'll soon forget all about him."

But it was no use arguing with him. Nikola had had an effect on him that was little short of marvellous, and it was not until we had well turned the Leuwin and were safely in Australian waters that he in any way recovered his former spirits. And here, lest you should give me credit for a bravery I did not possess, I must own that I, myself, was more than a little afraid of an other meeting with Nikola. I had now had four opportunities of judging that gentleman's cleverness once in the restaurant off Oxford Street, once in the "Green Sailor" public-house in the East India Dock Road, once in the West of England express, and lastly, in the house in Port Said. I had no desire to come to close quarters with him again I can assure you.

Arriving in Melbourne we caught the afternoon express for Sydney and reached that city the following