e only tired: you will be all right presently."

"You don't think I'm going to have the fever, then?"

"No," said Brian, wondering a little at his anxiety.

There was a long pause: then Heron spoke again.

"Luttrell." It was the first time that he had addressed Brian by his
name. "If I have the fever and go off my head as the others have all
done, will you remember--it's just a fancy of mine--that I--I don't
exactly want you to hear what I say! Leave me in this hut, or move me
into the other one, will you?"

"I'll do as you wish," said Brian, seriously, "but I needn't tell you
that I should attach no importance to what you said. And I should be
pleased to do anything that I was able to do for you, if you were ill."

"Well," said Percival, "I may not be ill after all. But I thought I
would mention it. And, Luttrell, supposing I were to follow Pollard's
example--"

"What is the good of talking in that way when you are not even ill?"

"Never mind that. If you get off this island and I don't, I want you to
promise me to go and see Elizabeth." Then, as Brian hesitated, "You must
go. You must see her and talk to her; do you hear? Good Heavens! How can
you hesitate? Do you mean to let her think for ever that I have betrayed
her trust?"

Decidedly the fever was already working in his veins. The flushed face,
the unnaturally brilliant eyes, the excitement of his manner, all
testified to its presence. Brian felt compelled to answer quietly,

"I promise."

"All right," said Percival, lying down again and closing his eyes. "And
now you can tell Fenwick that he's got another patient. It's the fever;
I know the signs."

And he was right. But the fever took a different course with him from
that which it had taken with the others: he was never delirious at all,
but lay in a death-like stupor from which it seemed that he might not
awake. Once--some days after the beginning of his illness--he came to
himself for a few minutes with unexpected suddenness. It was midnight,
and there was no light in the hut beyond that which came from the
brilliant radiance of the moon as it shone in at the open door. Percival
opened his eyes and made a sound, to which Brian answered immediately by
giving him something to drink.

"You've broken your promise," said Percival, in a whisper, keeping his
eyes fixed suspiciously on Brian's face.

"No. You have never been delirious, so I never needed to leave you."

"A quibble," murmured Heron, wi