"What's the matter? What ails you?" asked the frightened manufacturers, as they chafed my hands and gave me water.
"I felt faint."
"Are you ill?" the manager asked.
"I am hungry," was the unwilling answer which my pride permitted my sincerity to release.
These two manufacturers were generous and noble men, whose names I cannot refrain from giving, as I feel that I owe to them so much more than they ever realized from my ordinary expressions of gratitude during the days we worked together. One was Mr. Francis Coillou, the other Mr. M. A. Shapliguin.
For three days they fed me and cared for me, all in a most delicate manner, as I would not accept money from them. I had gone right to work in Professor Zaleski's laboratory on my experiments. My theoretical assumptions proved correct in practice, as I developed a cotton that absorbed twenty-five per cent, of nicotine. I asked Professor Zaleski to check my results and give me a certificate of his findings. As his examination of my compound verified my own claims, I was that same day armed with his regular professional statement and, after having given my cotton a nice pink hue, I took it at once along to the factory.
When the Municipal Chemical Laboratory tested my samples, they reported that it absorbed thirty per cent, of the nicotine, which was ten per cent, more than the amount retained by the cotton of the rival firm. On the following day I was already a rich man, for the firm immediately paid me the five hundred rouble bonus and another five hundred as a half of the first year's royalty, which not only made me sure about the morrow but of many to-morrows and gave me the necessary opportunity
