"No, no," she answered, "the weather is very fine. It is I--I who have
rained because I thought you die." She wiped his forehead with the soft
linen of her robe, then went on, "But you will not die; say that you
will live, say that you will live for me, Vernoon."

He looked at her, and feeble though he was, the awfulness of the
situation sank into his soul.

"I hope that I shall live," he answered. "I am hungry, please give me
some food."

Next instant there was a tumult near by, and when Alan looked up again
it was to see Jeekie, very lightly clad, flying through the door.

"It will be here presently," she said. "Oh! if you knew what I have
suffered, if you only knew. Now you will recover whom I thought dead,
for this fever passes quickly and there shall be such a sacrifice--no, I
forgot, you hate sacrifices--there shall be no sacrifice, there shall
be a thanksgiving, and every woman in the land shall break her bonds to
husband or to lover and take him whom she desires without reproach or
loss. I will do as I would be done by, that is the law you taught me, is
it not?"

This novel interpretation of a sacred doctrine, worthy of Jeekie
himself, so paralyzed Alan's enfeebled brain that he could make no
answer, nor do anything except wonder what would happen in Asiki-land
when the decree of its priestess took effect. Then Jeekie arrived
with something to drink which he swallowed with the eagerness of the
convalescent and almost immediately went to sleep in good earnest.