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An increase of the epidemic kept Spurstow in camp among the coolies, and all he could do was to telegraph to Mottram, bidding him go to the bungalow and sleep there. But Mottram was forty miles away from the nearest telegraph, and knew nothing of anything save the needs of the survey till he met, early on Sunday morning, Lowndes and Spurstow heading towards Hummil's for the weekly gathering.
'You take a pill, said Spurstow, who had been watching Hummil's white face narrowly. 'Take a pill, and don't be an ass. That sort of talk is skittles. Anyhow, suicide is shirking your work. If I were Job ten times over, I should be so interested in what was going to happen next that I'd stay on and watch. 'Ah! I've lost that curiosity, said Hummil. 'Liver out of order? said Lowndes feelingly.
Well, your sleeplessness hasn't ruined your muscle; and what a thick hide it is! Might as well inject a buffalo subcutaneously. Now in a few minutes the morphia will begin working. Lie down and wait. A smile of unalloyed and idiotic delight began to creep over Hummil's face. 'I think, he whispered, 'I think I'm going off now. Gad! it's positively heavenly!
There was no cholera near Hummil's section. Even fever gives a man at least a week's grace, and sudden death generally implied self-slaughter. 'I judge no man this weather, said Hummil. 'He had a touch of the sun, I fancy; for last week, after you fellows had left, he came into the verandah and told me that he was going home to see his wife, in Market Street, Liverpool, that evening.
Call the servants. They came, eight or ten of them, whispering and peering over each other's shoulders. 'When did your Sahib go to bed? said Spurstow. 'At eleven or ten, we think, said Hummil's personal servant. 'He was well then? But how should you know? 'He was not ill, as far as our comprehension extended. But he had slept very little for three nights.
Hummil's face was white and pinched, while his eyes were unnaturally large. No man dreamed for a moment of resenting his savage personalities, but as soon as the meal was over they made haste to get away. 'Don't go. You're just getting amusing, you fellows. I hope I haven't said anything that annoyed you.
He paddled into Hummil's saddle-room in his bare feet and uncased a twelve-bore rifle, an express, and a revolver. Of the first he unscrewed the nipples and hid them in the bottom of a saddlery-case; of the second he abstracted the lever, kicking it behind a big wardrobe. The third he merely opened, and knocked the doll-head bolt of the grip up with the heel of a riding-boot.
'What a sweet day! said he. The company yawned all together and betook themselves to an aimless investigation of all Hummil's possessions, guns, tattered novels, saddlery, spurs, and the like. They had fingered them a score of times before, but there was really nothing else to do. 'Got anything fresh? said Lowndes. 'Last week's Gazette of India, and a cutting from a home paper.
As a sponge rubs a slate clean, so some power unknown to Spurstow had wiped out of Hummil's face all that stamped it for the face of a man, and he stood at the doorway in the expression of his lost innocence. He had slept back into terrified childhood. 'Is he going to die on the spot? thought Spurstow. Then, aloud, 'All right, my son. Come back to bed, and tell me all about it.
'Hummil's the lucky man, said Lowndes, flinging himself into a long chair. 'He has an actual roof torn as to the ceiling-cloth, but still a roof over his head. He sees one train daily. He can get beer and soda- water and ice 'em when God is good.
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