e prospects was not so bad--so thought they, as they
hurriedly ran over the calculation. One hundred gallons to forty men
would be two and a half gallons, or twenty pints to each man--which
would give a pint a day for twenty days, and upon a pint a day they
could subsist. In twenty days, and less time than that, they were
confident of coming within sight of land. Even should they not reach a
haven before the twenty days were expired--should they be delayed by
calms, or contrary winds, they might reduce the ration still lower, and
by so doing extend the time. Half a pint a day would enable them to
exist; and even far less in case of extreme necessity. After all, their
prospect was not so perilous as they had at first judged it to be, and
they began to recover from the shook which they had received--for on the
announcement that there was only one hundred gallons left the quantity
had appeared as nothing to them, accustomed as they had been to drinking
and wasting that much daily. The calculation, however, showed that,
with this quantity they might make shift without any great deprivation,
until land, or perhaps a ship, might appear in sight.

With regard to the latter contingency, they had already formed a
purpose. If any ship came in view--excepting, of course, a ship of
war--they had come to the determination to chase and board her; and if a
supply of water was denied them they would take it from the vessel
_nolens volens_. Perhaps, even more than water--for both captain and
crew were now so desperate that they would not have stuck at anything;
very little provocation would have transformed the slaver into a pirate.

Such were the views of the _Pandora's_ crew, and such their
determinations in regard to the use of the water. Each man was to be
allowed a pint _per diem_; and, in case of any obstruction that might
prolong the voyage, the ration was to be reduced still lower--even to a
single glass a day, if this should become necessary.

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.

During all these deliberations not one word was said about the five
hundred unfortunate wretches between decks! It is a question whether
even a thought was spent upon them, except by myself, perhaps by Ben
Brace, and most likely the captain of the _Pandora_. But if the skipper
thought of them, it was from no motives of humanity. Profit and loss
were the only considerations that had any interest for him, and if he
was thinking of the poor creatures w