“Yes,” I said.  “You and I seem to have been forgotten.”

“Forgotten, sir?”

“Yes, by the fever-devil who has got on board this ship,” I said.

Ransome gave me one of his attractive, intelligent, quick glances and went away with the tray.  It occurred to me that I had been talking somewhat in Mr. Burns’ manner.  It annoyed me.  Yet often in darker moments I forgot myself into an attitude toward our troubles more fit for a contest against a living enemy.

Yes.  The fever-devil had not laid his hand yet either on Ransome or on me.  But he might at any time.  It was one of those thoughts one had to fight down, keep at arm’s length at any cost.  It was unbearable to contemplate the possibility of Ransome, the housekeeper of the ship, being laid low.  And what would happen to my command if I got knocked over, with Mr. Burns too weak to stand without holding on to his bed-place and the second mate reduced to a state of permanent imbecility?  It was impossible to imagine, or rather, it was only too easy to imagine.

I was alone on the poop.  The ship having no steerage way, I had sent the helmsman away to sit down or lie down somewhere in the shade.  The men’s strength was so reduced that all unnecessary calls on it had to be avoided.  It was the austere Gambril with the grizzly beard.  He went away readily enough, but he was so weakened by repeated bouts of fever, poor fellow, that in order to get down the poop ladder he had to turn sideways and hang on with both hands to the brass rail.  It was just simply heart-breaking to watch.  Yet he was neither very much worse nor much better than most of the half-dozen miserable victims I could muster up on deck.

It was a terribly lifeless afternoon.  For several days in succession low clouds had appeared in the distance, white masses with dark convolutions resting on the water, motionless, almost solid, and yet all the time changing their aspects subtly.  Toward evening they vanished as a rule.  But this day they awaited the setting sun, which glowed and smouldered sulkily amongst them before it sank down.  The punctual and wearisome stars reappeared over our mastheads, but the air remained stagnant and oppressive.

The unfailing Ransome lighted the binnaclelamps and glided, all shadowy, up to me.

“Will you go down and try to eat something, sir?” he suggested.

His low voice startled me.  I had been standing looking out over the rail, saying nothing, feeling nothing, not even the weariness of my limbs, overcome by the evil spell.

“Ransome,” I asked abruptly, “how long have I been on deck?  I am losing the notion of time.”

“Twelve days, sir,” he said, “and it’s just a fortnight since we left the anchorage.”

His equable voice sounded mournful somehow.  He waited a bit, then added:  “It’s the first time that it looks as if we were to have some rain.”

I noticed then the broad shadow on the horizon, extinguishing the low stars completely, while those overhead, when I looked up, seemed to shine down on us through a veil of smoke.