Meantime, six weeks had passed since Rosendo had departed to take up his lonely task of self-renouncing love. Then one day he returned, worn and emaciated, his great frame shaking like a withered leaf in a chill blast.
“It is the terciana, Padre,” he said, as he sank shuddering upon his bed. “It comes every third day. I went as far as Tachí––fifty leagues from Simití––and there the fever overtook me. I have been eight days coming back; and day before yesterday I ran out of food. Last evening I found a wild melon at the side of the trail. A coral snake struck at me when I reached for it, but he hit my machete instead. Caramba!”
Josè pressed his wet hand, while Doña Maria laid damp cloths upon his burning forehead.
“The streams are washed out, Padre,” Rosendo continued sadly. “I worked at Colorado, Popales, and Tambora. But I got no more than five pesos worth. And that will not pay for half of my supplies. It is there in a little bag,” pointing to his soaked and muddy kit.
Josè’s heart was wrung by the suffering and disappointment of the old man. Sadly he carried the little handful of gold flakes to Don Mario, and then returned to the exhausted Rosendo.
All through the night the sick man tossed and moaned. By morning he was delirious. Then Josè and Doña Maria became genuinely alarmed. The toil and exposure had been too much for Rosendo at his advanced age. In his delirium he talked brokenly of the swamps through which he had floundered, for he had taken the trail in the wet season, and fully half of its one hundred and fifty miles of length was oozy and all but impassable bog.
By afternoon the fever had greatly increased. Don Mario shook his head as he stood over him.
“I have seen many in that condition, Padre, and they didn’t wake up! If we had quinine, perhaps he might be saved. But there isn’t a flake in the town.”
“Then send Juan to Bodega Central at once for it!” cried Josè, wild with apprehension.
“I doubt if he would find it there either, Padre. But we can try. However, Juan cannot make the trip in less than two days. And I fear Rosendo will not last that long.”