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Chapter 27 Terrific Heat.—Hallucinations.—The Last Drops of Water.—Nights of Despair.—An Attempt at Suicide.—The Simoom.—The Oasis.—The Lion and Lioness. The doctor's first care, on the morrow, was to consult the ba-rometer. He found that the mercury had scarcely undergone any perceptible depression. "Nothing!" he murmured, "nothing!" He got out of the car and scrutinized the weather; there was only the same heat, the same cloudless sky, the same merciless drought. "Must we, then, give up to despair?" he exclaimed, in agony. Joe did not open his lips. He was buried in his own thoughts, and planning the expedition he had proposed.