The perspiration dripped on him off my head, my drill coat clung to my wet back: the afternoon breeze swept impetuously over the row of bedsteads, the stiff folds of curtains stirred perpendicularly, rattling on brass rods, the covers of empty beds blew about noiselessly near the bare floor all along the line, and I shivered to the very marrow.

The soft wind of the tropics played in that naked ward as bleak as a winter's gale in an old barn at home.

"Don't you let him start his hollering, mister," hailed from afar the accident case in a distressed angry shout that came ringing between the walls like a quavering call down a tunnel.

The clawing hand hauled at my shoulder; he leered at me knowingly.

"The ship was full of them, you know, and we had to clear out on the strict Q.T.," he whispered with extreme rapidity.