A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 65: what you’re looking at

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62 A QUEER RACE. ures’ senses are very acute, and itis quite conceivable that their leaving us is a good sign.” ‘*T should be glad to think so; but what do you call that?”? I asked, pointing to the dorsal fin of ashark which just then appeared above the water. ‘‘Heaven help us! they are coming back! And what a monster! Five-and-thirty feet, if it is an inch! And there 1s another. How will it all end, Erle?” ‘‘That is more than I can say; but 1 am quite sure that it will end neither better nor worse because those sharks have come back. I suppose it is their nature to follow in a ship’s wake.” But Bucklow shook his head; the incident had made a deep impression on bim, and he evidently put more faith in omens than he was willing to adinit. For the next two days, however, things did go better with us; there was no fresh cases, and two sailors who had been taken ill before the captain died seemed as if they might recover. At any rate, it was past the third day, and they were still alive, which showed, I thought, that the malady was losmg something of its virulence. But the improvement was short-lived. The breeze did not ‘ake us very far, and when it fell off the heat became intense, the two patients died, and we had several fresh cases. In several instances men died without being laid up. ‘There was a suppression of some of the secretions, in- tense pain in the limbs lasting for a few hours, and the suiicrers were struck down on the deck. It was probably in tis way that the poor creatures whose bodies we found on the Lady Jane came by their end. The erew. now reduced te less than a score, were sorely discouraged by this change for the worse. Sick of disap- pointed hope, they became desperate and demoralized; the bonds of discipline were loosened, and Bucklow could hardly prevail on them to work the ship. And no wonder. Let the reader imagine, if he can, what his own feelings would be if he were shut up in a house where a deadly and frightfully contagious disease was rife, where people were dying every day, and from which there was no possibility of escape. ** We shall nave trouble,” said Bucklow; ‘‘ the men are in avery evil humor. I doubt if I shall ever get this a ot (e(oylpallice JOO KS) (E(0) =) os a Pe eas