At last I was the only one who hadn't been
down with fever. We crawled on and on, and the only question was where
we ourselves would end, for the forest and the river were never going to.
But you didn't care. I'd never been better in my life, and here was the
thing I'd always wanted to see. I could have gone on for ever like that,
wondering what we should see round the next corner.

"Our big troubles were to come. Up to then, we hadn't run into anything
really drastic after turning a corner. I suppose we had had about a
month of it, and God knows where we were, but we had nobody to ask; and
then we ran on a sandbar. The jungle met overhead. We were in what was
only a dark drain through the forest. So this, I thought, is where we
throw in our hand. We might as well have been in another planet for all
the chance we had of getting away from that place. We were aground for
two days; the river then rose a foot, and we came off. The men were
complaining among themselves by then. I heard them talking to each other
about chucking it. It was bound to come. This day they went aft in a
body to Purdy. There stood Purdy, a little object in white against the
gloom of the forest, and he looked about as futile as the last match in a
wind at night. He stood fingering a beard he had grown. One of the men
was beginning to talk truculently at him. Just then Jessie appeared from
below, between me and the group. She had been down with fever for some
days, and she surprised me as much as a ghost. She looked rather like
one, too. She stood watching Purdy, without moving. He didn't look at
her, though he must have known she was there. I'm pretty sure we had to
thank her for what happened to us afterwards, for it was then that Purdy
began shaking his finger at that big stoker who was shouting. I'd never
seen him with such an expression before. As near as he could be wild, he
was. 'We're going on,' said Purdy to them very distinctly. 'This ship
continues her voyage. If you want to leave her here, I'll put you
ashore.' He walked away some paces, and came back to the men. Then he
said something more in his usual voice. 'Do you men tell me you're
afraid of the job? I don't believe it. It can be done. We'll do it.
We'll do it. Mr. Hanson,' he called out, 'we are ready to get under way.
Would you please stand by?'

"The men never said another word. They went for'ard. It was very
curious, but after that they behav