oup such as we get in the Islands, and half a loaf of bread, and a
pannikin of water. He set the things beside me, and untied my hands, and
placed the light so that it fell upon me, and stood patching me till I had
finished.

From his size I thought it was Torode himself, but he never opened his
mouth, nor I mine, except to put food into it. When I had done, he tied my
hands again and went out.

I slept like a top that night, in spite of it all, and felt better in the
morning and not without hope. For, as a rule, civilised men, ruffians
though they may be, do not feed those they are going to kill. They kill and
have done with it.

The same man brought me coffee and bread and meat, and stood watching me
again with his back to the porthole while I ate.

It was, as I had thought, Torode himself, and I would have given all I
possessed--which indeed was not overmuch--to know what was passing
concerning me in that great black head of his. But I did not ask him, for I
should not have expected him to tell me. I just ate and drank every scrap
of what he brought me, with as cheerful an air as I could compass, and
thanked him politely when I had done.

CHAPTER XX

HOW I LAY IN THE CLEFT OF A ROCK

On the third day of my confinement, and as near as I could tell about
midday, the small round porthole of my cabin was suddenly darkened by a
flap of sail let down from above, purposely I judged, and shortly
afterwards I found the ship was at rest.

It was after dark when Torode came in, and, without a word, bandaged my
eyes tightly, and then called in two of his men, who shouldered me, and
carried me up the companion and laid me in a boat. The passage was a short
one, about as far I thought as, say, from the anchorage at Herm to the
landing-place. Then they shouldered me again, and stumbled up a rocky way
and along a passage where their feet echoed hollowly, and finally laid me
down and went away. Torode untied my hands and feet and took off the
bandage.

By the light of his lantern I saw that I was in a rock room, with rough
natural walls, and sweet salt air blowing in from the farther end. There
was food and water, and a mattress and blanket. He left me without a word,
and locked behind him a grating of stout iron bars which filled all the
space between floor and roof. I was long past puzzling over the meaning of
it all. I ate my food, and lay down and slept.

A shaft of sunlight awoke me, and I examined my new pri