Also during the day he had suffered a few attacks of the vomito negro that taxes the strength of the human organism to the utmost.
Dr. Biddle whispered to Segwuna as she came beside the sick-bed:
“He is very sick and you better give him a teaspoonful of this solution in that tumbler every half-hour. If he can hold his own for the next thirty-six hours, he will begin to gain. This paroxysm of the fever usually reaches its crisis within three days, and after that, if his strength is sufficient to sustain vital action, his case is hopeful. But Segwuna, it all depends on the heart. This high temperature and this terrible pulse! If it lasts too long, there can be no hope.”
“Yes, Doctor, I know that this peste is a very grave disorder, and I shall not neglect your instructions,” replied Segwuna, as Dr. Biddle gathered up his medicine case and left.
The pride and power of man vanish when dread disease lays him low and brings him next to dissolution!
As Segwuna arranged all matters for her night’s vigil, she suddenly turned toward Barclugh, for, as he lay prostrate, his arms were waving wildly in the air as he exclaimed in his delirium:
“Arnold loves money! Yes, he loves money! Yes, General Clinton, he will get West Point from General Washington. I have offered him twenty thousand pounds sterling, and a General’s commission in the British army. Oh, that I had served my God with half the zeal I served my King. Yes, she is beautiful in her virtue. Oh! that wound will be the death of me! Yes, Risk shot me. There! There! All hands! Steady! Lads! Aim low!
“Oh say, Miss, was I talking?”
“Not much, Mr. Barclugh, be calm,” replied Segwuna, as she held the hand of the spy, and stroked his head, as he closed his eyes and dozed off into a semi-conscious state.
These words of Barclugh in his delirium, though disconnected, agitated Segwuna beyond measure. She had seen Barclugh leave on the Sloop-of-War Albatross when she spoke to him at Paule’s Hook in the dark. She had followed him to New York after he had visited at Dorminghurst. She had traced him to the Beekman House, and now she heard him in his delirium.