ight myself to condemn others, and never do it on
principle, for--"

"Thar you go agin, measurin' other folks' corns right away by your own
chilblains, marm," interrupted Mr Lathrope. "It's allers what you'd
do; and you never kinder give a thought to what t'other people would
have to say in the matter! I guess you're a bit narrow-minded, excuse
me, marm."

"Narrow-minded, humph!" snorted "the Major," highly indignant at the
accusation. "The idea of the thing! to be sure, Mr Lathrope, I ought
never to be surprised at anything you choose to say; your manners and
conversation are so very--ah, well--elegant!"

"Much obleeged, marm, I'm sure," said the other, chuckling at making her
angry. "I took fust-class when at school in the States for elegancy and
deportment."

"I'm sure I wish you had stopped there!" retorted the lady; but any
further amenities were arrested from passing between them by the nearer
approach of the longboat, and the fact of Mr Meldrum and those with him
coming down from the ridge so as to be on the beach when their
unexpected visitors got in to shore.

Closer and closer the boat came, until at last its keel touched ground,
when, slewing round broadside on, it was left stranded on the beach.

"Snakes and alligators!" exclaimed Mr Lathrope, the lugsail swinging
aside and enabling him and the others to see into the boat clearly, a
thing which had been previously impossible from the boat's coming up end
on. "They air a ruin lot, mister! Of all the starved, God-forsaken
critturs as I've ever seed they're 'bout the worst!"

They were.

Only the man who had been steering with the oar and the one who was on
the thwart amidships were apparently able to sit up, for three other
figures were observed stretched in the bottom of the boat in a lump
together; while one was by himself in the bows, doubled up in a
crouching posture, quite dead and with his ghastly eyes staring out
sightless from the retreating sockets. The closely-drawn features and
general appearance of this latter miserable object showed that he must
have expired in the last stage of starvation!

"Why, this is almost worse than you were when we picked you up off
Pernambuco," said Ben Boltrope to Karl Ericksen.

"Ja, ja!" replied the Norwegian. "It var sehr kalt, and we was expose
as mooch as starve; but it vor bad, very, and so is dese, it remind me,
oh! so much;" and he turned away his head, as Kate had already done,
from the hide