noon
This was the man for them -- very different from the pale-faced Meeus -- this was a man they felt who would lead them to more unspeakable butchery than Meeus had ever done . Therefore they shouted , piled their arms in the office and returned to the rebuilding of their huts with verve . They were not physiognomists , these gentlemen . Berselius awoke from sleep at noon , but he was so weak that he could scarcely move his lips . Fortunately there were some goats at the fort , and Adams fed him with goats ' milk from a spoon , just as one feeds an infant . Then the sick man fell asleep and the rain came down again -- not in a thunder shower this time , but steadily , mournfully , playing a tattoo on the zinc roof of the veranda , filling the place with drizzling sounds , dreary beyond expression . With the rain came gloom so deep that Adams had to light the paraffin lamp .