of palsy. He
could not see me, that was evident, nor hear me, but some instinct not
yet decayed turned him toward a new presence in the room. In my wild
desire for water I found room to think that here was a man even worse
off than myself.

A vessel of water was in the corner. I drank it. It was more than I
could hold, but I drank even after I was filled, and the waste ran from
the corners of my mouth. I had forgotten Schwartz. The excess made me
a little sick, but I held down what I had swallowed, and I really
believe it soaked into my system as it does into the desert earth after
a drought.

In a moment or so I took the vessel and filled it and gave it to
Schwartz. Then it seemed to me that my responsibility had ended. A
sudden great dreamy lassitude came over me. I knew I needed food, but
I had no wish for it, and no ambition to search it out. The man in the
corner mumbled at me with his toothless gums. I remember wondering if
we were all to starve there peacefully together--Schwartz and his
remaining gold coins, the man far gone in years, and myself. I did not
greatly care.

After a while the light was blotted out. There followed a slight
pause. Then I knew that someone had flown to my side, and was kneeling
beside me and saying liquid, pitying things in Mexican. I swallowed
something hot and strong. In a moment I came back from wherever I was
drifting, to look up at a Mexican girl about twenty years old.

She was no great matter in looks, but she seemed like an angel to me
then. And she had sense. No questions, no nothing. Just business.
The only thing she asked of me was if I understood Spanish.

Then she told me that her brother would be back soon, that they were
very poor, that she was sorry she had no meat to offer me, that they
were VERY poor, that all they had was calabash--a sort of squash. All
this time she was bustling things together. Next thing I know I had a
big bowl of calabash stew between my knees.

Now, strangely enough, I had no great interest in that calabash stew.
I tasted it, sat and thought a while, and tasted it again. By and by I
had emptied the bowl. It was getting dark. I was very sleepy. A man
came in, but I was too drowsy to pay any attention to him. I heard the
sound of voices. Then I was picked up bodily and carried to an
out-building and laid on a pile of skins. I felt the weight of a
blanket thrown over me--

I awoke in the night. Mind you, I had