صفحة 413 من 483

The report of the pistol brought a crowd into the room. I pointed

to the spot where he had disappeared, and we followed the track

with boats; nets were cast, but in vain. After passing several

hours, we returned hopeless, most of my companions believing it

to have been a form conjured up by my fancy. After having landed,

they proceeded to search the country, parties going in different

directions among the woods and vines.

I attempted to accompany them and proceeded a short distance from

the house, but my head whirled round, my steps were like those of

a drunken man, I fell at last in a state of utter exhaustion; a

film covered my eyes, and my skin was parched with the heat of

fever. In this state I was carried back and placed on a bed,

hardly conscious of what had happened; my eyes wandered round the

room as if to seek something that I had lost.