Then something gave way in the middle, and the whole mass of
green iron, smoking coals, brass fittings, wheels, wood-work, and
cushions all crumbled together and crashed down into the mine. We
heard the rattle, rattle, rattle, as the debris struck against the
walls, and then, quite a long time afterwards, there came a deep roar
as the remains of the train struck the bottom. The boiler may have
burst, for a sharp crash came after the roar, and then a dense cloud of
steam and smoke swirled up out of the black depths, falling in a spray
as thick as rain all round us. Then the vapour shredded off into thin
wisps, which floated away in the summer sunshine, and all was quiet
again in the Heartsease mine. "And now, having carried out our plans so successfully, it only
remained to leave no trace behind us. Our little band of workers at
the other end had already ripped up the rails and disconnected the side
line, replacing everything as it had been before. We were equally busy
at the mine. The funnel and other fragments were thrown in, the shaft
was planked over as it used to be, and the lines which led to it were
torn up and taken away. Then, without flurry, but without delay, we
all made our way out of the country, most of us to Paris, my English
colleague to Manchester, and McPherson to Southampton, whence he
emigrated to America. Let the English papers of that date tell how
throughly we had done our work, and how completely we had thrown the
cleverest of their detectives off our track. "You will remember that Gomez threw his bag of papers out of the
window, and I need not say that I secured that bag and brought them to
my employers. It may interest my employers now, however, to learn that
out of that bag I took one or two little papers as a souvenir of the
occasion. I have no wish to publish these papers; but, still, it is
every man for himself in this world, and what else can I do if my
friends will not come to my aid when I want them? Messieurs, you may
believe that Herbert de Lernac is quite as formidable when he is
against you as when he is with you, and that he is not a man to go to
the guillotine until he has seen that every one of you is en route for
New Caledonia. For your own sake, if not for mine, make haste,
Monsieur de ----, and General ----, and Baron ---- (you can fill up the
blanks for yourselves as you read this). I promise you that in the
next edition there will be no blanks to fill. "P.S.--As I look over my statement there is only one omission which I
can see. It concerns the unfortunate man McPherson, who was foolish
enough to write to his wife and to make an appointment with her in New
York. It can be imagined that when interests like ours were at stake,
we could not leave them to the chance of whether a man in that class of
life would or would not give away his secrets to a woman. Having once
broken his oath by writing to his wife, we could not trust him any
more. We took steps therefore to insure that he should not see his
wife. I have sometimes thought that it would be a kindness to write to
her and to assure her that there is no impediment to her marrying
again." The Beetle-Hunter

A curious experience? said the Doctor. Yes, my friends, I have had one
very curious experience. I never expect to have another, for it is
against all doctrines of chances that two such events would befall any
one man in a single lifetime. You may believe me or not, but the thing
happened exactly as I tell it. I had just become a medical man, but I had not started in practice, and
I lived in rooms in Gower Street. The street has been renumbered since
then, but it was in the only house which has a bow-window, upon the
left-hand side as you go down from the Metropolitan Station. A widow
named Murchison kept the house at that time, and she had three medical
students and one engineer as lodgers. I occupied the top room, which
was the cheapest, but cheap as it was it was more than I could afford. My small resources were dwindling away, and every week it became more
necessary that I should find something to do. Yet I was very unwilling
to go into general practice, for my tastes were all in the direction of
science, and especially of zoology, towards which I had always a strong
leaning. I had almost given the fight up and resigned myself to being
a medical drudge for life, when the turning-point of my struggles came
in a very extraordinary way. One morning I had picked up the Standard and was glancing over its
contents. There was a complete absence of news, and I was about to
toss the paper down again, when my eyes were caught by an advertisement
at the head of the personal column. It was worded in this way:


"Wanted for one or more days the services of a medical man. It is
essential that he should be a man of strong physique, of steady nerves,
and of a resolute nature. Must be an entomologist--coleopterist
preferred. Apply, in person, at 77B, Brook Street. Application must be
made before twelve o'clock today." Now, I have already said that I was devoted to zoology. Of all
branches of zoology, the study of insects was the most attractive to
me, and of all insects beetles were the species with which I was most
familiar. Butterfly collectors are numerous, but beetles are far more
varied, and more accessible in these islands than are butterflies. It
was this fact which had attracted my attention to them, and I had
myself made a collection which numbered some hundred varieties. As to
the other requisites of the advertisement, I knew that my nerves could
be depended upon, and I had won the weight-throwing competition at the
inter-hospital sports. Clearly, I was the very man for the vacancy. Within five minutes of my having read the advertisement I was in a cab
and on my was to Brook Street. As I drove, I kept turning the matter over in my head and trying to
make a guess as to what sort of employment it could be which needed
such curious qualifications. A strong physique, a resolute nature, a
medical training, and a knowledge of beetles--what connection could
there be between these various requisites? And then there was the
disheartening fact that the situation was not a permanent one, but
terminable from day to day, according to the terms of the
advertisement. The more I pondered over it the more unintelligible did
it become; but at the end of my meditations I always came back to the
ground fact that, come what might, I had nothing to lose, that I was
completely at the end of my resources, and that I was ready for any
adventure, however desperate, which would put a few honest sovereigns
into my pocket. The man fears to fail who has to pay for his failure,
but there was no penalty which Fortune could exact from me. I was like
the gambler with empty pockets, who is still allowed to try his luck
with the others. No. 77B, Brook Street, was one of those dingy and yet imposing houses,
dun-coloured and flat-faced, with the intensely respectable and solid
air which marks the Georgian builder.