a spoiled child in similar circumstances, and,
raising the bottle to my lips, I drained it to the last drop, and dashed
it furiously upon the floor.

Scarcely had the echo of the crash died away, when I heard my name
pronounced in an eager but subdued voice, issuing from the direction of
the steerage. So unexpected was anything of the kind, and so intense was
the emotion excited within me by the sound, that I endeavoured in vain
to reply. My powers of speech totally failed, and in an agony of terror
lest my friend should conclude me dead, and return without attempting
to reach me, I stood up between the crates near the door of the box,
trembling convulsively, and gasping and struggling for utterance. Had
a thousand words depended upon a syllable, I could not have spoken
it. There was a slight movement now audible among the lumber somewhere
forward of my station. The sound presently grew less distinct, then
again less so, and still less. Shall I ever forget my feelings at this
moment? He was going--my friend, my companion, from whom I had a right
to expect so much--he was going--he would abandon me--he was gone! He
would leave me to perish miserably, to expire in the most horrible and
loathesome of dungeons--and one word, one little syllable, would save
me--yet that single syllable I could not utter! I felt, I am sure, more
than ten thousand times the agonies of death itself. My brain reeled,
and I fell, deadly sick, against the end of the box.

As I fell the carving-knife was shaken out from the waist-band of my
pantaloons, and dropped with a rattling sound to the floor. Never did
any strain of the richest melody come so sweetly to my ears! With the
intensest anxiety I listened to ascertain the effect of the noise upon
Augustus--for I knew that the person who called my name could be no one
but himself. All was silent for some moments. At length I again heard
the word "Arthur!" repeated in a low tone, and one full of hesitation.
Reviving hope loosened at once my powers of speech, and I now screamed
at the top of my voice, "Augustus! oh, Augustus!" "Hush! for God's sake
be silent!" he replied, in a voice trembling with agitation; "I will be
with you immediately--as soon as I can make my way through the hold."
For a long time I heard him moving among the lumber, and every moment
seemed to me an age. At length I felt his hand upon my shoulder, and he
placed, at the same moment, a bottle of water to my lips. Those only who