Dick laughed. "Thank you very much," he said, "but I couldn't possibly accede to your terms; they are altogether too glaringly unfair. The salaried part I don't at all object to, because of course if you desire to include a medical man in your retinue you must pay him a fair salary, and two guineas a day is not too much, in my opinion. But when you come to talk about my share of the spoils, in my capacity of your partner, it becomes a different matter altogether, since I cannot contribute a farthing to the expenses of the expedition, therefore I cannot by any process of reasoning be entitled to any share of its possible profits. No; if you care to engage me as doctor, at the salary that you have named, I will accept the post with pleasure and my most hearty thanks, because the pay will suffice to keep the dear old Mater going; and when we return to civilisation--if we ever do--I shall be able to set about the task in earnest of `making my fortune.'" "But, look here my dear fellow," remonstrated Grosvenor, "it is just nonsense in you--if you will excuse my saying so--to refuse the second part of my proposal, for this reason. I am not undertaking this expedition as a speculation, or with any idea of making it pay. I have already a much larger income than I know what to do with, and for that and other reasons money does not come into the question at all. Like other fellows who go hunting, I shall naturally desire to have a few trophies to exhibit as tokens of my prowess; but, beyond those, I shall have no use at all for ivory, skins, horns, and such other matters as we may acquire; therefore you may as well have them as anyone else, especially as you are avowedly out fortune-hunting. Besides, two guineas a day is an altogether inadequate rate of remuneration for a young fellow of your exceptional ability--why, before you had been practising a month you would be earning four or five times that amount, and you will be sacrificing that possibility for an indefinite period if you elect to join forces with me. Therefore I contend that if any profits of any kind accrue to the expedition, you are justly entitled to them, and I shall not be content unless you consent to take them; indeed if you refuse I shall be obliged to withdraw my offer altogether, much as I shall regret having to do so." Under those circumstances there was of course nothing more to be said; and finally Dick agreed to Grosvenor's proposal in its entirety, the more readily that, after all, when he came to reflect upon it, there was much truth in what Grosvenor had said with regard to the possible loss which Dick might sustain by attaching himself to the expedition and burying himself in the wilds for a more or less indefinite period.