"
"You have been unfortunate, Doctor, but--"
"Unfortunate!" echoed the little man, sideling nigher to his
companion, and producing his tablets with an air in which exultation
struggled, strangely, with an affectation of self-abasement. "No, no,
Ellen, I am any thing but unfortunate. Unless, indeed, a man may be so
called, whose fortune is made, whose fame may be said to be
established for ever, whose name will go down to posterity with that
of Buffon--Buffon! a mere compiler: one who flourishes on the
foundation of other men's labours. No; pari passu with Solander, who
bought his knowledge with pain and privations!"
"Have you discovered a mine, Doctor Bat?"
"More than a mine; a treasure coined, and fit for instant use, girl.--
Listen! I was making the angle necessary to intersect the line of your
uncle's march, after my fruitless search, when I heard sounds like the
explosion produced by fire arms--"
"Yes," exclaimed Ellen, eagerly, "we had an alarm--"
"And thought I was lost," continued the man of science too much bent
on his own ideas, to understand her interruption.
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