After a little he helped the old man to sit up, and a spoonful at a time the warm soup was fed to him.
Through the whole of that day he returned to consciousness only for brief intervals, lapsing back into a death-like sleep after each awakening.

During one of these periods of unconsciousness Wabi cut short the tangled beard and hair, and for the first time they saw in all its emaciation the thin, ghastly face of the man who, half a century before, had drawn the map that led them to the gold.

There was little change in his condition during the night that followed, except that now and then he muttered incoherently, and at these times Rod always caught in his ravings the name that he had heard in the cavern.
The next day there was no change.

And there was still none on the third.

Even Mukoki, who had tried every expedient of wilderness craft in nursing, gave up in despair.