“Let’s give him some more,” Ned suggested.
Another dose was administered, though Bob fought against taking it. The youth was hardly conscious of what he was doing. He lay with closed eyes, his face red and flushed from the fever, and his breath coming in short, labored gasps.
Suddenly the sick boy raised himself up on the cot where he had been placed.
“Who?” asked Jerry, thinking Bob saw some one.
“That alligator! He has the big snake and they are both being chased by the sea cow! Where’s my gun?”
“Out of his head,” whispered Ned, as he gently pressed Bob back on the bed. “What shall we do?”
Jerry did not know what to say. This was a new complication, for their journeys heretofore had been free from the worry of serious illness.
“My, but he’s hot!” went on Ned, feeling of Bob’s hand. “We ought to have an ice bag for him.”
“No ice here, but I’ve just thought of something we can do.”
“Dip cloths in water and put ’em on him. That’ll help some.”
They dipped several large handkerchiefs into the lake, wrung them out, and laid them on Bob’s forehead, neck and chest. It was a crude expedient but it was the best they could do. In the hot climate the water evaporated quickly and the cloths were made cooler from this cause than they otherwise would have been. Bob seemed a little easier, though he continued to moan and murmur in his delirium.
It was a long, weary night and, when the gray dawn began to show, Ned and Jerry were two very much alarmed youths.
“If the professor would only come back!” exclaimed Ned. “He’d know what to do for Bob. He always carries medicine with him. I wish he would come.”
“Maybe he left some of his medicines in the boat.”
“If he did I wouldn’t risk using them. We might give Bob the wrong thing.”
“That’s so. I wonder if anything could have happened to Mr. Snodgrass?”
“I hope not,” responded Ned. “Still he ought to be back by this time.”
“Give me some ice water!” suddenly called Bob, sitting up on the cot.
“I wish we had some,” said Jerry in a low voice as he gently pushed his chum’s head back on the pillow. “He’s on fire,” he added, turning to Ned.
The medicine was administered with considerable difficulty for, as the fever progressed Bob fought against taking it, as the stuff was not very pleasant. Still Ned and Jerry knew it was the only thing they had, and they fairly forced Bob to swallow it.