Berselius's under-lip did not droop, nor did his manner lack the ordinary decision of a healthy man; the change in him was slight, but it was startlingly evident. So high had Nature placed him above other men, that a crack in the pedestal was noticeable; as to the injury to the statue itself, the ladder of time would be required before that could be fully discovered.
So far from being downcast this morning, Berselius was mildly cheerful. He washed and had his wound dressed, and then sat down to a miserable breakfast of cold tinned meat and cassava cakes, with water fetched from the pool in a cracked calabash.
He said nothing about the mist in his head, and Adams carefully avoided touching on the question.
"Sleep has put him all right," said Adams to himself. "All the same, he's not the man he was. He's a dozen times more human and like other men. Wonder how long it will last. Just as long as he's feeling sick, I expect."
He rose to fetch his pipe when Berselius, who had finished eating and had also risen to his feet, beckoned him to come close.
"That is the road we came by?" said Berselius, pointing over the country toward the west.
"Do you see the skyline?" said Berselius.
"Well, my memory carries me to the skyline, but not beyond."
"Oh, Lord!" said Adams to himself, "here he is beginning it all over again!"
"I can remember," said Berselius, "everything that happened as far as my eye carries me. For instance, by that tree a mile away a porter fell down. He was very exhausted. And when we had passed that ridge near the skyline we saw two birds fighting; two bald-headed vultures----"
"But beyond the skyline," said Berselius, suddenly becoming excited and clutching his companion's arm, "I see nothing. I know nothing. All is mist--all is mist."
"Yes, yes," said the surgeon. "It's only memory blindness. It will come back."
"Ah, but will it? If I can get to the skyline and see the country beyond, and if I remember that, and if I go on and on, the way we came, and if I remember as I go, then, then, I will be saved. But if I get to that skyline and if I find that the mist stops me from seeing beyond, then I pray you kill me, for the agony of this thing is not to be borne." Suddenly he ceased, and then, as if to some unseen person, he cried out--