Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/156

130 that Vrouw Voohaas had not yet appeared, and fearing lest something were the  matter, she decided to go up and investigate  the cause of this unusual state of affairs. At the door of the bedroom she paused, horror-struck at the sound of a curious muttering and groaning now grown terribly familiar to her ears. Then she opened the door. Her worst suspicions were verified—Vrouw Voorhaas had the plague!

The woman lay tossing and moaning, utterly unconscious of anything about her, muttering strange, incoherent sentences in her delirium. Amazed and shocked at what she heard, Jacqueline stood rooted to the spot  listening.

“I will not eat it!—I must not eat it!—” cried the unconscious woman, “—It is for  the children!—Oh, God, how I hunger!—” Then in a lower tone;—“Dirk Willumhoog thou shalt not harm them as thou didst endeavor to harm—” Here she appeared to fall into a restless sleep, and for a few