“And when do you sail?” asked Sedgwick.

“I intended to put to sea to-morrow,” was the answer; “everything is ready.”

“Can I induce you for love and money to make the run at full speed to Naples or Marseilles?” asked Sedgwick.

“Not for money, but for love, yes,” was the reply.

“And can I have a room for Jordan right now?” was the next question.

“You shall have the bridal chamber of my ship,” said McGregor.

“Thanks, Captain,” said Sedgwick, “and now let us get the dear old boy to bed.”

Jordan insisted that he was not ill, but before they could get him undressed he was seized with a chill, and they worked upon him an hour before he rallied, grew warm and fell asleep.

In the meantime the night had come down, so Sedgwick got a little supper and then went back to his friend.  The captain, steward, indeed all hands, were all attention, for they knew all about both men.

Next morning Jordan was comfortable, but the fever was having its way.  Sedgwick went ashore, got his own and Jordan’s baggage and the bullion, and when he returned the ship was at once got under way for her northern voyage.

The attentions of Sedgwick to his sick friend were simply incessant.  The ship’s surgeon was also assiduous in his care.  Captain McGregor was all the time most solicitous.  As they approached the equator, they fixed for Jordan a bed on deck where the air, even if it was hot, was better in motion over him than in the stifling state-room.

The ship rounded the great cape in ten days, and reached the Red Sea on the twelfth day.  Then the surgeon motioned Sedgwick aside, and said:  “The case of your friend makes me very anxious.  His wound is not of itself serious.  He has a little fever, but it would not be of a dangerous type in an ordinary patient.  In this case the sick man acts like one who has lost hope, and under the sorrow of his loss his nerve power has ceased to exert its force, and the man is liable to die simply because he will make no effort to live.”

“I know,” said Sedgwick, “and I have been dreading such a report as you have made me, for the last seven days.  If you can keep his life from going out until we can reach Naples, I believe we can then find a tonic that will save him.”

“I will try,” was the answer, “but he is growing weaker every day, and I am afraid.  However, the temperature is growing cooler and it gives us a better chance.”

Sedgwick tried by talking, by reading, and by drawing rosy pictures of what they would do in England and America, to rouse Jordan, but without much success.

He lay patient and still on his couch, and to all inquiries would answer:  “I’m perfectly comfortable, dear friend.  Do not worry about me; everything is as it should be.”

Then Sedgwick tried another experiment.  He told the sick man that he must exert himself to be better; that sickness was often influenced by the will of the patient, and added that the real work of trying to undo the wrong perpetrated upon Browning would have to be done when they reached England, and that he should then need the best counsel and help of his friend.