"Hello—"
Startled a little, she turned toward the voice. A man's voice, very low. It came from somewhere behind her. She broke away from her support and the fever-surge caught her and whipped her from head to foot. Her balance was going—
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you."
She was kept from falling by the arm of the stranger.
"No. It's the fever. I assure you it's the fever."
Now he just steadied her with one hand. The fever was filling her brain with a dull haze. . . . He was slender and not tall. He was much bronzed. She could see only his eyes and his mouth. He spoke again:
"Why are you alone in this jungle—with such a fever?"
The words dropped into her consciousness; even, smooth, like pebbles gently released into water.
Then the blackness of outer darkness came up between.
. . . That was how the present Mrs. Hichens began to know Skag.