Now I knew beyond doubt he was not asleep, for however weary he would ever awake at a touch or the lightest whisper.

I began to fear he was dead, and a feeling of sickness swept over me as that grim fear took hold.
"Sahib!" I said again, taking his shoulders with both hands.

And he toppled over toward me, thus, like a dead man.

Yet he breathed.

I made certain he was breathing.
I shook him twice or thrice, with no result.