From this time on all of the sick were willing to be baptized--not by
the Captain but by the two boys, Willy and Peppo. The Captain became
very ill and Willy nursed him. Redfox was taken with fever, and in his
delirium would trust no one to wait upon him. Constantly he cried
"Water! water!" then would not take it when offered him. Willy gave
him a glass and he threw it at his head screaming, "Poison! poison!
The boy wants to poison me!" One morning he was gone. His companions
searched for him in vain, and finally recognized his agonizing cries
from the opposite shore where the cannibals were torturing him. In his
delirium he had swum across the narrow inlet which separated them from
their enemies; his heartrending cries told of the reception accorded
him. "Oh, if he had only repented!" cried the boys with a shudder, as
they listened.
* * * * * *
The rainy season had been over for weeks and again the water in the
casks was running short. When it was gone, what then?--Men looked
death in the face and prepared for it. Of the crew barely a dozen were
left; and of the Chinamen not more than fifty, and all of them were
suffering from scurvy.
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