, were trying to learn Dutch under an instructor who knew the
mysteries. A call came for volunteers for inoculation, and both Dion
and Worthington answered it, with between forty and fifty other men.
The prick of the needle was like the touch of a spark; soon after came a
mystery of general wretchedness, followed by pains in the loins, a rise
of temperature and extreme, in Dion's case even intense, weakness.
He lay in his bunk trying to play the detective on himself, to stand
outside of his body, saying to himself, "This is I, and I am quite
unaffected by my bodily condition." For what seemed to him a long time
he was fairly successful in his effort; then the body began to show
definitely the power of its weakness upon the Ego, to asset itself by
feebleness. His will became like an invalid who is fretful upon the
pillows. Soon his strong resolutions, cherished and never to be parted
from till out of them the deeds had blossomed, lost blood and fell
upon the evil day of anemia. He had a sensation of going out. When the
midnight came he could not sleep, and with it came a thought feeble but
persistent: "If she loves me it's because I've given her Robin." And in
the creaking darkness, encompassed by the restlessness of the sea, again
and again he repeated to himself the words--"it's because I've given her
Robin." That was the plain truth. If he was loved, he was loved because
of something he had done, not because of something that he was. Towards
dawn he felt so weak that his hold on life seemed relaxing, and at last
he almost wished to let it go. He understood why dying people do not
usually fear death.

Three days later he was quite well and at work, but the memory of his
illness stayed with him all through the South African campaign. Often at
night he returned to that night on shipboard, and said to himself, "The
doctor's needle helped me to think clearly."

The voyage slipped away with the unnoticed swiftness that is the child
of monotony. The Southern Cross shone above the ship. When the great
heat set in the men were allowed to sleep on deck, and Dion lay all
night long under the wheeling stars, and often thought of the stars
above Drouva, and heard Rosamund's voice saying, "I can see the
Pleiades."

The ship crossed the line. Early in February the moon began to show a
benign face to the crowd of men. One night there was a concert which was
followed by boxing. Dion boxed and won his bout easily on points.

This l