it listed; the stilled sea took on
the polish of a steel plate in the calm.

I went below, not because I meant to take some rest, but simply because
I couldn't bear to look at it just then. The indefatigable Ransome was
busy in the saloon. It had become a regular practice with him to give
me an informal health report in the morning. He turned away from the
sideboard with his usual pleasant, quiet gaze. No shadow rested on his
intelligent forehead.

"There are a good many of them middling bad this morning, sir," he said
in a calm tone.

"What? All knocked out?"

"Only two actually in their bunks, sir, but--"

"It's the last night that has done for them. We have had to pull and
haul all the blessed time."

"I heard, sir. I had a mind to come out and help only, you know. . . ."

"Certainly not. You mustn't. . . . The fellows lie at night about the
decks, too. It isn't good for them."

Ransome assented. But men couldn't be looked after like children.
Moreover, one could hardly blame them for trying for such coolness and
such air as there was to be found on deck. He himself, of course, knew
better.

He was, indeed, a reasonable man. Yet it would have been hard to say
that the others were not. The last few days had been for us like the
ordeal of the fiery furnace. One really couldn't quarrel with their
common, imprudent humanity making the best of the moments of relief,
when the night brought in the illusion of coolness and the starlight
twinkled through the heavy, dew-laden air. Moreover, most of them were
so weakened that hardly anything could be done without everybody that
could totter mustering on the braces. No, it was no use remonstrating
with them. But I fully believed that quinine was of very great use
indeed.

I believed in it. I pinned my faith to it. It would save the men, the
ship, break the spell by its medicinal virtue, make time of no account,
the weather but a passing worry and, like a magic powder working against
mysterious malefices, secure the first passage of my first command
against the evil powers of calms and pestilence. I looked upon it as
more precious than gold, and unlike gold, of which there ever hardly
seems to be enough anywhere, the ship had a sufficient store of it. I
went in to get it with the purpose of weighing out doses. I stretched my
hand with the feeling of a man reaching for an unfailing panacea, took
up a fresh bottle and unrolled the wrapper, noticing as I did so that
th