too late" would come back to me;
then I tried to persuade myself that I was young and strong, and as I
had led a very different sort of life to most of the men, I was more
likely than any one to escape the gripe of the fever.

We had another trip on shore to bury poor Bob. The captain seemed sorry
for him. "He was a man of better education than his messmates, though,
to be sure, he had been a wild chap," he observed to me. Bob's
conscience had been awakened; that of the others remained hardened or
fast asleep, and they died as they had lived, foul, unwashed, unfit to
enter a pure and holy heaven.

I am drawing a sad and painful picture, but it is a true one. I did not
then understand how full of horror it was, though I thought it very sad
to lose so many of our crew.

We continued to carry on trade as before, and the captain sent
messengers urging the natives to hasten in bringing palm oil on board,
but they showed no inclination to hurry themselves; and as to quitting
the river till he had a full cargo on board, he had no intention of
doing that.

Hitherto the officers had escaped; but one morning the second mate
reported that the first mate was unable to leave his berth, though he
believed that it was nothing particular; but Dick Radforth, who was
considered to be the strongest man on board, when he had tried to get up
that morning, had been unable to rise. The captain sent me forward to
see him.

Some hours must have passed since he was attacked. He was fearfully
changed, but still conscious.

"Black Jack has got hold of me at last, Harry, but I'll grapple with him
pretty tightly before I let him get the victory, do you see," he
observed, when I told him that the captain had sent me to see him. "I'm
obliged to him, but if he wishes to give me a longer spell of life, and
to save the others on board, he will put to sea without loss of time,
while the land breeze lasts. A few mouthfuls of sea air would set me up
in a trice. If we don't get that there will be more of us down with
fever before night."

The boatswain had scarcely said this when he began to rave and tumble
and toss about in his berth, and I had to call two of the men to assist
me in keeping him quiet. When I got back to the cabin, I told the
captain what Radforth had said. "Oh, that's only the poor fellow's
raving. It will never do to leave the river without our cargo, for if
we do some other trader will sure to be in directly afterward