m.

"I suppose he liked that," said Archy, after a time, talking aloud, for
it was pleasant to hear a voice in the solemn darkness, even if it was
only his own.

He grew a little more softened in his feelings, and, after resisting the
temptation for three hours, and vowing that he would keep to bread and
water and starve himself before he would let them think he received
their gifts, he found himself thinking more and more of the friendly
feeling of the boy and his show of gratitude. Then he recalled all that
had passed about the proposal to escape--to set him at liberty--to be
his companion; and he was obliged to own that Ram had behaved very well.

"For him," he said contemptuously, and then such a peculiarly strong
suggestion of its being dinner-time reminded him that he ought to
partake of food, that he opened the basket, and the temptation was
resisted no longer.

Pride is all very well in places, but there is a strength in cold roast
chicken, plum puffs, and cream-cheese, that will, or did in this case,
sweep everything before it; and, after making a very hearty meal, the
midshipman almost wished that he had Ram there to talk to as a humble
companion in that weary solitude.

"He's a miserable, contemptible beggar," said Archy at last, "but I need
not have been quite so rough with him as I was."

CHAPTER THIRTY.

Matters grew no better. There was a leaning toward the rough lad, who
seemed never weary of trying to perform little acts of kindness for his
father's prisoner; but there was only one thing which the midshipman
desired, and, as that could not be accorded, the friendly feeling
between the two lads stayed where it was. In fact, it seemed to be
turning into positive dislike on one side, Archy fiercely rating his
gaoler over and over again, and Ram bearing it all in the meekest way.

The gloom was so familiar to Archy now that he could go almost anywhere
about the great place, without stumbling over the loose fragments of
stone, or being in danger of running up against the great pillars. And,
as he roved about the quarry, his busy fingers touched packages and
bales; he knew which parcels contained tobacco; he handled bales which
he felt sure were silk, and avoided the piled-up kegs of brandy, whose
sickly odour would always remind him of being ill at sea.

All these things occupied his mind a little, and when he was extra dull,
he would go and lie down by the hole which admitted the salt sea