feet. Again he raised her in his arms and bore her to the hut. Here he
laid her down on her bed, and stood for a moment beside her, unable to
restrain his tears.

CHAPTER XXX.

IT was a wretched and anxious night for Hazel. He watched the hut,
without the courage to approach it. That one moment of weakness which
occurred to him on board the _Proserpine,_ when he had allowed Helen to
perceive the nature of his feelings toward her, had rendered all his
actions open to suspicion. He dared not exhibit toward her any
sympathy--he might not extend to her the most ordinary civility. If she
fell ill, if fever supervened! how could he nurse her, attend upon her?
His touch must have a significance, he knew that; for, as he bore her
insensible form, he embraced rather than carried the precious burden.
Could he look upon her in her suffering without betraying his forbidden
love? And then would not his attentions afflict more than console?

Chewing the cud of such bitter thoughts, he passed the night without
noticing the change which was taking place over the island. The sun rose;
and this awakened him from his reverie, which had replaced sleep; he
looked around, and then became sensible of the warnings in the air.

The sea-birds flew about vaguely and absurdly, and seemed sporting in
currents of wind; yet there was but little wind down below. Presently
clouds came flying over the sky, and blacker masses gathered on the
horizon. The sea changed color.

Hazel knew the weather was breaking. The wet season was at hand--the
moment when fever, if such an invisible inhabitant there was on that
island, would visit them. In a few hours the rain would be upon them, and
he reproached himself with want of care in the construction of the hut.
For some hours he hovered around it, before he ventured to approach the
door and call to Helen. He thought he heard her voice faintly, and he
entered. She lay there as he had placed her. He knelt beside her, and was
appalled at the change in her appearance.

The poor girl's system had received a shock for which it was unprepared.
Her severe sufferings at sea had, strange to say, reduced her in
appearance less than could have been believed; for her physical endurance
proved greater than that of the strong men around her. But the food which
the island supplied was not suited to restore her strength, and the
nervous shock to which she had been subjected was followed by complete
prostration.

Haz