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Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour
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Год написания книги
2017
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[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
These last few days, he's been positively hilarious. Yesterday he was cracking jokes with the natives.
Dick
[Dryly.] Scotch jokes. I daresay they sound funny in an African dialect.
Doctor
I've never seen him more cheerful. I said to myself: By the Lord Harry, the chief thinks we're in a devil of a bad way.
Dick
Thank Heaven, it's all over now. We've none of us had any sleep for three days, and when I once get off, I don't mean to wake up for a week.
Doctor
I must go and see the rest of my patients. Perkins has got a bad dose of fever this time. He was quite delirious a while ago.
Dick
By Jove, I'd almost forgotten. How one changes out here! Here am I feeling happy and comfortable and inclined to make a little jest or two, and I've forgotten already that poor Richardson is dead and Lord knows how many natives.
Doctor
Poor chap, we could ill spare him. The fates never choose the right man.
Dick
What do you mean by that?
Doctor
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Последний отзыв
Книга дельная. Без воды, приводятся реальные кейсы и способы их разрешения. Много практичных полезных советов и методик. Кое-что уже испробовала в дел...
Далее