ut it."

"Yes," said Owen, "leave their share of food to others."

At the regular hour each person received his half-pound of biscuit.
Some, I noticed, swallowed it ravenously, others reserved it for another
time. Falsten divided his ration into several portions, corresponding,
I believe, to the number of meals to which he was ordinarily accustomed.
What prudence he shows! If any one survives this misery, I think it will
be he.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

DECEMBER 23rd to 30th--After the storm the wind settled back into its
old quarter, blowing pretty briskly from the north-east. As the breeze
was all in our favour it was important to make the most of it, and
after Dowlas had carefully readjusted the mast, the sail was once more
hoisted, and we were carried along at the rate of two or two and a half
knots an hour. A new rudder, formed of a spar and a good-sized plank,
has been fitted in the place of the one we lost, but with the wind in
its present quarter it is in little requisition. The platform of the
raft has been repaired, the disjointed planks have been closed by means
of ropes and wedges, and that portion of the parapet that was washed
away has been replaced, so that we are no longer wetted by the waves. In
fact, nothing has been left undone to insure the solidity of our raft,
and to render it capable of resisting the wear and tear of the wind and
waves. But the dangers of wind and waves are not those which we have
most to dread.

Together with the unclouded sky came a return of the tropical
heat, which during the preceding days had caused us such serious
inconvenience; fortunately on the 23rd the excessive warmth was somewhat
tempered by the breeze, and as the tent was once again put up, we were
able to find shelter under it by turns.

But the want of food was beginning to tell upon us sadly, and our sunken
cheeks and wasted forms were visible tokens of what we were enduring.
With most of us hunger seemed to attack the entire nervous system, and
the constriction of the stomach produced an acute sensation of pain. A
narcotic, such as opium or tobacco, might have availed to soothe, if not
to cure, the gnawing agony; but of sedatives we had none, so the pain
must be endured.

One alone there was amongst us who did not feel the pangs of hunger.
Lieutenant Walter seemed as it were to feed upon the fever that raged
within him; but then he was the victim of the most torturing thirst,
Miss Herbey, besides reserving f