Next day, after a night of delirium, during which I raved, so Hartog
told me, of eagles and serpents, I awoke refreshed, though still very
weak. I could not bear to be left alone, not even for a moment, and
Hartog nursed me with a tenderness that my mother would have given me
had she been at my bedside. At length I pulled through, and was able to
come on deck; but it was a shadow of my former self who crept up the
companion ladder to where a couch had been prepared for me. As I lay
thus, recovering my strength in the sun, I was able to give Hartog some
account of my adventure. At first, when I spoke of rubies, he evidently
regarded what I said as a flight of fancy inseparable from the dreadful
ordeal through which I had passed. But when I insisted that I had told
him nothing but truth, he brought me the clothes I had worn on my
descent into the valley, the pockets of which we found to be full of
the rubies I had collected. But, after consultation, we determined to
say nothing about these rubies to any member of the crew. The wealth of
the Indies would not have tempted me to descend into the valley again,
and Hartog considered the risk too great for him to run, upon whom the
safety of us all depended.
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