There was the throbbing as of the
engines, and the heat, but somehow he felt that he could not be on the
gunboat. For once in a way there was a roar as of wild beasts; then it
was not the roar of wild beasts, for it seemed to be the blast of a
bugle, out of tune, harsh, and blown by some horrible giant, so big, so
vast, so confusing that, as he was trying to think what it could be and
why, everything was all confusion again. If he could only think! If he
could only make it out, why it was, and what it was! And he was in a
hurry to do this. It seemed as if he was struggling with all his might
to be able to think, before everything was shut down again.

He did not know what was going to be shut down, or what there was to be
shut down. He did not understand; but he could feel the awful heat, the
heavy, burning, throbbing pain, and with it--there was nothing. And
what was nothing? Nothing but darkness and the great question: why?--
which grew and grew and grew till it became bigger and bigger and
resolved itself into something going round and round; and that something
seemed to be why he could not think.

How long this went on Archie did not know; but after a time in the
darkness there seemed to come a faint dawning like a feeble ray of
light, which suggested that he must be at home in England on a
frightfully hot day, lying down on one of the benches in the Lion House
at the Zoo. For there was that tremendous giant's roar or trumpeting
sound, and this must, he knew, be one of the savage beasts, and had
something to do with his having suddenly dropped to sleep and being
wakened by the bellowing sound.

Then more darkness--silence--the ever-increasing confusion and whir, and
nothingness, till some time or other there was a fresh coming of the
dawn, in the midst of which he felt something that seemed wonderfully
cool and moist laid upon his head, and a voice that seemed to come from
miles away whispered:

"Poor old chap!"

Then all was dark again, and he seemed to be dreaming of the fever and
the doctor that was talking to him and telling him that there were six
of the men just as bad as he was, and that he was to take _that_. He
could think now, for he distinctly heard him say:

"Tip it up. It will do you good."

And somehow the engines seemed to have been stopped, and he felt as if
he was being lifted on to some one's arm away from the tremendous heat
of the engine fires, and he knew it was the Doctor--g