He divined this and struck at it. To do him
justice, I suppose that if he had walked up brutally to the
Medical Association and given them his story, I should have been
struck off the Register. He worked more subtly than that.
Indefinable reports started up, spread and followed me. Out of
the skies a net of suspicion descended between me and my quite
reputable past. For no reason given, my fellow-practitioners
began to shun me.
"I had a bad case, and no money to carry it through. I have
heard, Roddy, that he let you into the secret of the island and
that you are like to prosper on it: and I wish you well. But I,
who brought him to it, lingering him to land--I, but for whose
treasured flask he would never have lived to see Santa Island--
could set up no claim on any of that wealth.
"I had deserved this. It was all quite right, and I make no
complaint. But I had to throw up Harley Street, and for two
years I steadily sank. In the end I came to know worse hunger
than I was prepared for.
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