Gloom had settled on his mind also; he felt his brother's loss more acutely now than on the day he buried him.

Moreover, for the first time he suffered from symptoms of the deadly fever which had carried off his three companions.

Alas! he knew too well the meaning of this lassitude and nausea, and of the racking pain which from time to time shot through his head and limbs.
That was how his brother's last sickness had begun.
Would his own days end in the same fashion?
He did not greatly care, he was reckless as to his fate, for the hard necessities of life had left him little time or inclination to rack himself with spiritual doubts.
And yet it was awful to think of.

He rehearsed the whole scene in his mind again and yet again until it became a reality to him.

He saw his own last struggle for life and Otter watching it.