So Kersdale on the joyous leper. He was not afraid of leprosy. He
said so himself, and that there wasn't one chance in a million for
him or any other white man to catch it, though he confessed
afterward that one of his school chums, Alfred Starter, had
contracted it, gone to Molokai, and there died.

"You know, in the old days," Kersdale explained, "there was no
certain test for leprosy. Anything unusual or abnormal was
sufficient to send a fellow to Molokai. The result was that dozens
were sent there who were no more lepers than you or I. But they
don't make that mistake now. The Board of Health tests are
infallible. The funny thing is that when the test was discovered
they immediately went down to Molokai and applied it, and they found
a number who were not lepers. These were immediately deported.
Happy to get away? They wailed harder at leaving the settlement
than when they left Honolulu to go to it. Some refused to leave,
and really had to be forced out. One of them even married a leper
woman in the last stages and then wrote pathetic letters to the
Board of Health, protesting against his expulsion on the ground that
no one was so well able as he to take care of his poor old wife."

"What is this infallible test?" I demanded.

"The bacteriological test. There is no getting away from it.
Doctor Hervey--he's our expert, you know--was the first man to apply
it here. He is a wizard. He knows more about leprosy than any
living man, and if a cure is ever discovered, he'll be that
discoverer. As for the test, it is very simple. They have
succeeded in isolating the bacillus leprae and studying it. They
know it now when they see it. All they do is to snip a bit of skin