outer world that constituted Mr. Bensington's fame, a shining and active

figure presently became conspicuous--became almost, as it were, a leader

and marshal of these externalities in Mr. Bensington's eyes. This was

Dr. Winkles, that convincing young practitioner, who has already

appeared in this story as the means whereby Redwood was able to convey

the Food to his son. Even before the great outbreak, it was evident that

the mysterious powders Redwood had given him had awakened this

gentleman's interest immensely, and so soon as the first wasps came he

was putting two and two together.

He was the sort of doctor that is in manners, in morals, in methods and

appearance, most succinctly and finally expressed by the word "rising."

He was large and fair, with a hard, alert, superficial,

aluminium-coloured eye, and hair like chalk mud, even-featured and

muscular about the clean-shaven mouth, erect in figure and energetic in

movement, quick and spinning on the heel, and he wore long frock coats,

black silk ties and plain gold studs and chains and his silk hats had a

special shape and brim that made him look wiser and better than anybody.

He looked as young or old as anybody grown up. And after that first

wonderful outbreak he took to Bensington and Redwood and the Food of the

Gods with such a convincing air of proprietorship, that at times, in

spite of the testimony of the Press to the contrary, Bensington was

disposed to regard him as the original inventor of the whole affair.

These accidents," said Winkles, when Bensington hinted at the dangers

of further escapes, "are nothing. Nothing. The discovery is everything.

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth