He, too, was asleep, if sleep that can be called which, plunging the
senses into unconsciousness, yet leaves pain and misery to play their
active part upon the darkened stage of the mind. Of his youth, of his
beauty, I might almost say of his very manhood--such as was wont to be
suggested by the open, brave, and winning expression of his face--not a
trace was left. The spoliation of suffering had been so complete, that
the bare wreck of the noble temple it had ruined was all that remained.
Now, even more completely than in his waking hours, might we master the
full extent of the cruel transformation that had been wrought, since
the candour of sleep was on the slumberer, and the self-consciousness
that masks the subtle facial truths, inactive. His hair, formerly dark
and luxuriant, was thinned about the forehead, was tangled and coarse,
and mixed with gray and white. The protrusion of the cheek-bones formed
a conspicuous feature; under them the flesh fell into a hollow, and, as
much of it as the bristly moustache and whiskers suffered to be seen,
was puckered and dried up like the rind of an old winter apple. The
under lip was enlarged, and entirely altered the remembered aspect of
the mouth. The eyebrows drooped where they had formerly arched, and
the hair of them near the temples had fallen off. Time might, perhaps,
efface some of these disfigurements deep graven by the stylet of
pain; but no man could have looked upon that sleeping face without a
conviction of the permanency of much that he beheld.
He slept; but though his slumber was deep, his movements were so
restless, convulsive, and feverish, that it seemed every moment as if
he must start up.
Once during the night the ship’s bell sounding seven awakened him,
and he opened his eyes and raised his head, but soon let it fall
again. Then it was during this short interval of wakefulness that
the bewildered look of which Mr. Sherman had spoken might have been
perceived; and it lingered for some minutes on his face after he had
dropped asleep once more.
Several times during the night the kind-hearted man who watched by the
poor fellow’s side rose from his chair, and scrutinised him anxiously;
and once Mr. Banks popped his shaggy head in to ask how the sufferer
did, but found both patient and doctor asleep.
The morning crept over the sky, and turned the port-hole and the piece
of deck-glass white; and at six o’clock Mr. Sherman woke, and crept
quietly to his cabin to refresh himself with a plunge in cold water;
then went on deck, where he found the captain smoking a cigar, his feet
in galoshes, and the hands washing down. A sparkling, genial morning,
with a warm breeze from the west, the barque in full sail, and the
green seas caressing her bows, and leaping back from their keen salute
in avalanches of foam.
“Good morning, Mr. Sherman,” said the skipper. “This is the weather,
eh, sir? Out of the Doldrums by Tuesday week, I hope. How’s your
patient?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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