But Rudolph, sitting in the mud, felt only that his eyes were dry and leaden in their sockets, that there was a drumming in his ears, and that if heat and weariness thus made an end of him, he need no longer watch the oppressive multitude of stars, or hear the monotony of flowing water.
Something stirred in the dry grass above him.

Without turning, he heard a man scramble down the bank; without looking up, he felt some one pause and stoop close.

When at last, in profound apathy, he raised his eyes, he saw against the starlight the hat, head, and shoulders of a coolie.
Quite natural, he thought, that the fellow should be muttering in German.

It was only the halting, rusty fashion of the speech that finally fretted him into listening.

The words did not concern him.
"Are you dead, then ?" grumbled the coolie.