The unknown continued to stare at him, blinking with his eyes, and then rubbed his brow with his hand.
"I not only see but hear!" he said to himself. "This is no illusion!
What? Help? I myself am in need of help. I am wounded."
Suddenly, however, he shook himself as though out of a wild dream or torpor, gazed more consciously, and, with a gleam of joy in his eyes, said:
"A white boy!—I again see a white one! I welcome you whoever you are.
Did you speak of some sick girl? What do you want of me?"
Stas repeated that the sick girl was Nell, the daughter of Mr. Rawlinson, one of the directors of the Canal; that she already had suffered from two attacks of fever and must die if he did not obtain quinine to prevent the third.
"Two attacks—that is bad!" answered the unknown. "But I can give you as much quinine as you want. I have several jars of it which are of no use to me now."
Speaking thus, he ordered little Nasibu to hand him a big tin box, which apparently was a small traveling drug store; he took out of it two rather large jars filled with a powder and gave them to Stas.
"This is half of what I have. It will last you for a year even."
Stas had a desire to shout from sheer delight, so he began to thank him with as much rapture as if his own life were involved.
The unknown nodded his head several times, and said: