Just before
she rounded the point she was swallowed up in a terrific squall that far
out-blew the first.
All that night, while squall after squall smote Berande, uprooting trees,
overthrowing copra-sheds, and rocking the house on its tall piles,
Sheldon slept. He was unaware of the commotion. He never wakened. Nor
did he change his position or dream. He awoke, a new man. Furthermore,
he was hungry. It was over a week since food had passed his lips. He
drank a glass of condensed cream, thinned with water, and by ten o'clock
he dared to take a cup of beef-tea. He was cheered, also, by the
situation in the hospital. Despite the storm there had been but one
death, and there was only one fresh case, while half a dozen boys crawled
weakly away to the barracks. He wondered if it was the wind that was
blowing the disease away and cleansing the pestilential land.
By eleven a messenger arrived from Balesuna village, dispatched by
Seelee. The _Jessie_ had gone ashore half-way between the village and
Neal Island. It was not till nightfall that two of the crew arrived,
reporting the drowning of Captain Oleson and of the one remaining boy. As
for the _Jessie_, from what they told him Sheldon could not but conclude
that she was a total loss.
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