Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 1.djvu/358

 to a restless excitement. He was suffering terribly from thirst. His tongue and lips were so swollen that he could scarcely utter a sound.

There were still a few drops of water remaining. Each man knew it, each thought of it, and felt attracted by it, but nobody dared to approach it.

These three companions and friends now looked at each other with haggard eyes, and with a feeling of horrible longing, which displayed itself in Kennedy chiefly. His powerful frame was less able to tolerate, these privations. During all that day he was a prey to delirium; he moved about, uttering hoarse cries, biting his fingers, and ready to open a vein to assuage his thirst.

"Ah!" he cried. "Country of thirst, you are well named the region of despair!" Then he fell into a profound lethargy, and nothing could be heard but the sound of his breathing between his swollen lips.

Towards evening Joe was seized with symptoms of madness. The vast stretch of sand appeared to him an immense pond filled with clear and sparkling water. More than once he cast himself upon the burning ground to drink, and raising his mouth, filled with sand, would exclaim with anger: "Curse it, it is salt water!"

Afterwards, while Kennedy and Ferguson lay motionless, he was seized with an invincible desire to drink the few remaining drops of water kept in reserve. The wish overpowered him. He crept towards the car on all-fours; he devoured the contents of the bottle with his eyes; he cast a cautious look around, and seizing it, put it to his lips.

At this moment the words "Give me some, give me a drink," were uttered in despairing accents.

It was Kennedy, who had dragged himself towards Joe. The unhappy man was to be pitied; he begged upon his knees, he even wept. Joe wept too, and handed him the bottle, which Kennedy finished to the last drop.

"Thank you," he said. But Joe did not hear him, he had fallen, like Kennedy, upon the sand.

We will pass over the horrors of that night. But on Tuesday morning, under the fiery rays of the sun that bathed their limbs, the unfortunate travelers felt them withering up by degrees. When Joe attempted to rise, he