"Smoke and grog are the only things a man can look forward to with certainty after a stiff day's work. The sooner you can get your flock to cleanse out the sheepfolds the better, Mr. Shepherd. We had typhus here ten years ago, and it gave them such a scare that for one year the place was fairly sweet. Now it stinks as bad as ever, and I'll be hanged if I can stir them." "I'll stir them, or I'll know the reason why!" Dr. Yool studied the deep-set eyes and firm mouth before him for a good minute, and then said: "Gad! I believe you will if any man can." "Do you know East London?" "Not intimately. I've seen enough of it to strengthen my preference for clean sand." "This is heaven compared with it. I'm going to open these people's eyes to their advantages." "You'll be a godsend if you can." "I want you to tell me all you think fit about two naked boys I came across on the shore this morning. Carr'ns, they called themselves. Fine little lads, and next door to savages, as far as I could judge. I tried to pump Mrs. Jex, and she referred me to you." Dr. Yool puffed contemplatively, and looked at him through the smoke. "That's the problem of Carne," he said slowly at last--"the insoluble problem." "What's the problem? And why insoluble?" "One of them is heir to Caine; the other is baseborn. No man on earth knows which is which." "Any woman?" "Ah--there you have it! Can you make a woman speak against her will--and her interest?" he added, as a hopeful look shot through Eager's eyes. "It's a strong combination against one. All the same, there is no reason why those boys should grow up naked of mind as well as of body. They are surely close in age? They're as like as two peas--splendid little savages, both." "There may be a week between them, not more." He puffed thoughtfully for several minutes again, and then said slowly: "If you can clothe them, body and mind, it will be a good work and a tough one. It's virgin soil and a big handful, and one of them's got a place in the world. I'll tell you the story for your guidance. I can trust it in your keeping. The old man would curse me, no doubt, but his time is past and the boys' is only coming. They are of more consequence." And bit by bit he told him what he knew of the strange happenings which had led to the problem of Carne. Eager followed him with keen interest. "And was that first marriage genuine?" he asked. "Very doubtful. I worried the old man till he went off to look into it, but when he came back he would say nothing. It makes no difference, however, for we don't know one boy from the other." "And the mother--the one who lived?" asked Eager, following out his own line of thought. "She stayed on at Carne with her mother for about a year. Then she disappeared, and, as far as I know, nothing has been heard of her since. She could solve the problem doubtless, but if she swore to it no one would believe her." "She believed in her own marriage, of course?"