Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/297

 Rh But she, staring at the dark opening, cried with chattering teeth:

"And the Bedouins too! Why did you kill them?"

Stas clasped her with his arms and pressed her to his bosom.

"You know why! Don't look there! Don't think of that! That happened long ago!"

"To-day! to-day!"

"No, Nell, long ago."

In fact it was long ago, but it had returned like a wave beaten back from the shore and again filled with terror the thoughts of the sick child.

All words of reassurance appeared in vain. Nell's eyes widened more and more. Her heart palpitated so violently that it seemed that it would burst at any moment. She began to throw herself about like a fish taken out of the water, and this continued almost until morning. Only towards the morning was her strength exhausted and her head dropped upon the bedding.

"I am weak, weak," she repeated. "Stas, I am flying somewhere down below."

After which she closed her eyes.

Stas at first became terribly alarmed for he thought that she had died. But this was only the end of the first paroxysm of the dreadful African fever, termed deadly, two attacks of which strong and healthy people can resist, but the third no one thus far had been able to withstand. Travelers had often related this in Port Said in Mr. Rawlinson's home, and yet more frequently Catholic missionaries returning to Europe, whom Pan Tarkowski received hospitably. The second attack comes after a few days or a fortnight, while if the third does not come within two weeks it is not fatal as it is reckoned as the first in the recurrence of the sickness. Stas knew