f way up the mast. But although it again and again caught my eye, it
hardly roused my curiosity, and I did not rise from the bundle of sails
on which I was lying to ascertain what it really was. But no sooner did
the rays of the sun fall full upon it than I saw at once that it was
the body of a man, attached to a rope, and swinging to and fro with the
motion of the raft.

A horrible presentiment carried me to the foot of the mast, and, just
as I had guessed, Hobart had hanged himself. I could not for a moment;
doubt that it was I myself that had impelled him to the suicide. A cry
of horror had scarcely escaped my lips, when my fellow-passengers were
at my side, and the rope was cut. Then came the sailors. And what was it
that made the group gather so eagerly around the body? Was it a humane
desire to see whether any spark of life remained? No, indeed; the corpse
was cold, and the limbs were rigid; there was no chance that animation
should be restored. What then was it that kept them lingering so close
around? It was only too apparent what they were about to do.

But I did not, could not, look. I refused to take part in the horrible
repast that was proposed. Neither would Miss Herbey, Andre nor his
father, consent to alleviate their pangs of hunger by such revolting
means. I know nothing for certain as to what Curtis did, and I did not
venture to inquire; but of the others,--Falsten, Dowlas, the boatswain,
and all the rest,--I know that, to assuage their cravings, they
consented to reduce themselves to the level of beasts of prey; they were
transformed from human beings into ravenous brutes.

The four of us who sickened at the idea of partaking of the horrid
meal withdrew to the seclusion of our tent; it was bad enough to hear;
without witnessing the appalling operation. But, in truth, I had the
greatest difficulty in the world in preventing Andre from rushing out
upon the cannibals, and snatching the odious food from their clutches.
I represented to him the hopelessness of his attempt, and tried to
reconcile him by telling him that if they liked the food they had a
right to it. Hobart had not been murdered; he had died by his own hand;
and, after all, as the boatswain had once remarked to me, "it was better
to eat a dead man than a live one."

Do what I would, however, I could not quiet Andre's feeling of
abhorrence; in his disgust and loathing he seemed for the time to have
quite forgotten his own sufferings.

Mea