Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/216

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THE MOUNTAIN OF FEARS

like men, have their grades of honesty. Have you not seen a finely bred dog of high courage subdue an animal impulse which he feels to be degrading?"

I had observed this thing, but, seeing that the subject had suggested something to Leyden's mind, I merely nodded. Few men had looked as deeply into the nature of all things made as had this keen-sensed Teuton collector, who seemed equally at home in any part of the civilized or savage world. He had at times played the same quiet, modest part in the founding of empires as in the advancement of science; his friends were to be found from the palm tree to the palace, and I fear that a great many of his enemies were dead.

"I had. once an occasion to watch a striking case of noblesse oblige in an animal," Leyden continued. "I would not tell the story if it were a simple animal yarn, as such tales are, as a rule, tiresome and untruthful. This story concerns people, principally, but as those upon whom it reflects discreditably are dead

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