“But he is quite safe here, you know—quite safe.”

The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. Read this book online for free on HackerNoon!

“I have a fancy,” he said over his coffee, “that something is going to happen to me to-day.” He spoke—as he moved and thought—slowly.

“But all this is merely imitating Nature. I have done more than that in my time. I have—beaten her.”

He looked at me over his spectacles. “I’ve seen another that was refused at four.”

It is quite impossible to say whether this thing really happened. It depends entirely on the word of R.M. Harringay, who is an artist.

“‘Right about face,’ I said. ‘Not too close together.’

“Anything new? I thought not. I did these islands twenty-five—twenty-seven years ago. If you find anything new here—well it’s brand new. I didn’t leave much.”

Davidson felt about, and puzzled over it, and answered presently that he could feel it all right, but he couldn’t see it.

Probably you have heard of Hapley—not W.T. Hapley, the son, but the celebrated Hapley, the Hapley of Periplaneta Hapliia, Hapley the entomologist.

The other man had been in the fore part of the canoe, closely scrutinising the land. He had a sheet of yellow paper on his knee.