t possible trim, she was suddenly encumbered with the additional
weight of seven extra men, which, with the twelve persons previously on
board, raised her complement to nineteen, and caused her to be
inconveniently crowded. Then these additional seven men had to be fed
out of the rapidly diminishing stores belonging to the launch, for not
an ounce of anything had been saved from the pinnace. This rendered it
imperatively necessary that all hands should at once be put upon a very
short allowance of food and water; a hardship trying enough to the men
of the party, but doubly so to the women and poor little May. However,
no one murmured or offered the slightest objection to the arrangement,
when at mid-day Captain Staunton explained the state of affairs and laid
before the party his proposal. Except Mr Dale. That individual, on
hearing the proposition, promptly crawled out of his snug shelter, and
hastened to remind the skipper that he, the speaker, was an invalid;
that his health, already undermined by the privations and exposure which
he had been lately called upon to suffer, had been completely broken up,
and his nervous system shattered by his recent immersion; that what
might be perfectly right and proper treatment for people in a state of
robust health--as everybody in the boat, excepting himself, appeared to
be--would be followed by the most disastrous consequences if applied to
himself; and that, finally, he begged to remind Captain Staunton that he
had duly paid his passage-money, and, ill or well, should expect to be
fully supplied with everything necessary for his comfort. Captain
Staunton looked at the objector for some moments in dead silence, being
positively stricken dumb with amazement. Then in accents of the
bitterest scorn he burst out with--

"You despicable wretch! Is it actually possible, sir, that you have
_no_ sense whatever of shame?--that you are so full of selfishness that
there is no room in you for any other feeling? Are you forgetful of the
fact, Mr Dale, that it is to your greed and clumsiness we are indebted
for the greatly increased hardships of our situation? But for you, sir,
the pinnace would probably have been still afloat; yet _you_ are the one
who presumes to murmur at the privations of which you are the direct
cause. I wish to Heaven I had never seen your face; you positively make
me feel ashamed of my sex and of my species."

"That's all very well," sneeringly retorted thi