's fever was violent. It had been hanging
about him for a long time, and was the result of malarial poisoning.
I devoutly wished that we were in the Mediterranean instead of the Red
Sea, where the heat was so great; but fortunately we should soon be
there. There was no other case of sickness on board, and I could devote
plenty of time to him. Offers of assistance in nursing were numerous,
but I only encouraged those of the bookmaker, strange as this may seem;
yet he was as gentle and considerate as a woman in the sick-room. This
was on the first evening of his attack. After that I had reasons for
dispensing with his generous services. The night after Roscoe was taken
ill we were passing through the canal, the search-light of the 'Fulvia'
sweeping the path ahead of it and glorifying everything it touched. Mud
barges were fairy palaces; Arab punts beautiful gondolas; the ragged
Egyptians on the banks became picturesque; and the desolate country
behind them had a wide vestibule of splendour. I stood for half an hour
watching this scene, then I went below to Roscoe's cabin and relieved
the bookmaker. The sick man was sleeping from the effects of a sedative
draught. The bookmaker had scarcely gone when I heard a step behind me,
and I turned and saw Justine Caron standing timidly at the door, her
eyes upon the sleeper. She spoke quietly. "Is he very ill?"

I answered that he was, but also that for some days I could not tell how
dangerous his illness might be. She went to the berth where he lay, the
reflected light from without playing weirdly on his face, and smoothed
the pillow gently.

"If you are willing, I will watch for a time," she said. "Everybody is
on deck. Madame said she would not need me for a couple of hours. I will
send a steward for you if he wakes; you need rest yourself."

That I needed rest was quite true, for I had been up all the night
before; still I hesitated. She saw my hesitation, and added:

"It is not much that I can do, still I should like to do it. I can at
least watch." Then, very earnestly: "He watched beside Hector."

I left her with him, her fingers moving the small bag of ice about his
forehead to allay the fever and her eyes patiently regarding him. I went
on deck again. I met Miss Treherne and her father. They both inquired
for the sick man, and I told Belle--for she seemed much interested--the
nature of such malarial fevers, the acute forms they sometimes take, and
the kind of treatment