Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/77

  pushing his face toward mine until his gin-soaked bristles almost touched my cheek. 'At times'—his voice dropped to a whisper—'at times I am actually in fear of him!'

Do you think that he will accept my offer?' I asked, leaning backward, for the man was getting momentarily more repugnant to me.

"B'r'r'gh!" Leyden arose suddenly and, walking to the taffrail, spat into the water. "I can see the fellow yet, Doctor," he said, turning to me apologetically. "He—and his unhealthy, exotic surroundings, that were partly luxurious, partly rotten, like one of those beautiful carnivorous orchids with their wonderful tints and charnel-house odor—mauve and carmine outside and inside full of decaying insects. Meyers was rich, and he had a fine house and a beautiful garden, and European delicacies, and books, and objets de vertu, but his setting was poisonous! Man groves and fever and humid heat—and when ever you went in and out of his place you [ 61 ]