night was one of ceaseless anxiety to Daphne and myself,
poor Smellie being prostrate with raging fever and utterly helpless
during the whole of that time. Fugitives as we were, and in a savage
country, it was quite out of our power to procure assistance, medical or
otherwise. We were thrown completely upon our own resources, and we had
nothing whatever to guide us in our inexperience. Daphne, to my
surprise, appeared to possess no knowledge whatever of the healing art;
and thus the treatment of our patient devolved solely upon me. And what
could I do?

I had no drugs; and had I had access to the best appointed apothecary's
shop I should still have lacked the knowledge requisite for a right use
of its contents. So we were obliged, no doubt fortunately for the
patient, to allow Nature to take her course, merely adopting such simple
precautionary measures as would suggest themselves to anyone possessed
of average common sense. We provided for our patient a comfortable,
fragrant, springy bed of a species of heather; cleansed and dressed his
wounds as often as seemed necessary; kept him as cool as possible, and
fed him entirely upon fruits of a mild and agreeable acid flavour.
During that fortnight Smellie was undoubtedly hovering on the borderland
between life and death, and but for the tireless and tender solicitude
of Daphne I am convinced he would have passed across the dividing line
and entered the land of shadows. I soon saw that this poor ignorant
black girl, this unsophisticated savage, had, all unknowingly to
Smellie, yielded up her simple untutored heart a willing captive to the
charm of his genial manner and gallant bearing; and as the crisis
approached which was to decide the question of life or death with him,
the unhappy girl established herself beside him and seemed to enter upon
a blind, dogged, obstinate struggle with the Grim Destroyer, with the
life of the unconscious patient as the stake.

As for me, I was wretched, miserable beyond all power of description.
Knowing but little of Smellie, save as my superior officer, until the
terrible night when we found ourselves fellow-captives doomed to a cruel
death together, I had since then seen so much that was noble and good in
him that I had speedily learned to _love_ him with all my heart, ay,
with the same love which David bore to Jonathan. And there he lay, sick
unto death, and I was powerless to help him.

At length, leaving him one day under Daph