Page:Rowland--The Mountain of Fears.djvu/42

  It's rotten with fever!' growled Vinckers, who, like myself, spoke English better than the Scotchman. 'It stinks of fever—smell it! We were fools to stay here so long.'

" 'We are a pack of lotus-eaters,' said I. 'You are right, Vinckers; it is this accursed stuff we have been eating—this adiposcere! We will get out of here to-morrow.'

" 'Do you feel as if your inside was filled with lead, Leyden?' asked Vinckers.

It is worse than that,' said I—'molten lead.'

"You see, Doctor, we had been living on this rich, fatty stuff, which certainly contained a great deal of oil and I do not know what else besides—narcotics, no doubt. You know the richness of an avocado? They will tell you in some places that this fruit produces biliousness, but I have never heard that it had a soporific effect, as undoubtedly had the myela fruit. Then we had taken no exercise.

"I think that night was hotter than most; we [ 26 ]