[_With a wave of the hand._] Sometimes, when we're marching under a sun that just about takes the roof of your head off, and we've had the scantiest and most uncomfortable breakfast possible, I have a vision. DOCTOR. D'you mind only gesticulating with one arm? DICK. I see the dining-room of my club and myself sitting at a little table by the window looking out on Piccadilly, and there's a spotless tablecloth, and all the accessories are spick and span. An obsequious servant brings me a rump steak, grilled to perfection, and so tender that it melts in the mouth. And he puts by my side a plate of crisp, fried potatoes. Can't you smell them? DOCTOR. [_Laughing._] Shut up! DICK. And then another obsequious servant brings me a pewter tankard, and into it he pours a bottle, a large bottle, mind you, of foaming ale. DOCTOR. You've certainly added considerably to our cheerfulness. DICK. [_With a shrug of the shoulders._] I've often been driven to appease the pangs of raging hunger with a careless epigram, and by the laborious composition of a limerick I have sought to deceive a most unholy thirst. DOCTOR. Well, last night I thought you'd made your last joke, old man, and that I had given my last dose of quinine. DICK. We were in rather a tight corner, weren't we? DOCTOR. This is the third expedition I've gone with Mackenzie against the slave-raiders, and I promise you I've never been so certain that all was over with us. DICK. Funny thing death is, you know. When you think of it beforehand, it makes you squirm in your shoes, but when you've just got it face to face, it seems so obvious that you forget to be afraid. It's one of my principles never to be impressed by a platitude. DOCTOR. It's only by a miracle we escaped. If those Arabs hadn't hesitated to attack us just those ten minutes we should have been wiped out. DICK. Alec was splendid, wasn't he? DOCTOR. Yes, by Jove! He thought we were done for. DICK. What makes you think that? DOCTOR. Well, you see, I know him pretty well. He's been a pal of yours for twenty years in England, but I've been with him out here three times, and I tell you there's not much about a man that you don't know then. DICK. Well? DOCTOR. Well, when things are going smoothly and everything's flourishing, he's apt to be a bit irritable. He keeps rather to himself, and he doesn't say much unless you do something he doesn't approve of. DICK. And then, by Jove, he comes down on one like a thousand of bricks. It's not for nothing the natives call him Thunder and Lightning. DOCTOR. But when things begin to look black, his spirits go up like one o'clock. And the worse they are, the more cheerful he is. DICK. It's one of his most irritating characteristics. DOCTOR. When every one is starving with hunger, and dead tired, and soaked to the skin, Mackenzie fairly bubbles over with good-humour. DICK. When I'm in a bad temper, I much prefer every one else to be in a bad temper too. DOCTOR.