ll take them to pump out the water, but they'll never be
in time to save us. We shall die of hunger or suffocation...."

"Have patience," answered the professor. "I know how long we can live
without food and I have made my calculations. They will do it in time."

At this moment big Comperou burnt into sobs.

"The good Lord is punishing me," he cried, "and I repent! I repent! If I
get out of here I swear to atone for the wrong I have done, and if I
don't get out you boys will make amends for me. You know Rouquette, who
was sentenced for five years for stealing a watch from Mother Vidal?...
I was the thief! I took it! Its under my bed now.... Oh...."

"Throw him in the water," cried both Pages and Bergounhoux.

"Do you want to appear, then, before the Lord with a crime on your
conscience?" cried the professor; "let him repent!"

"I repent! I repent," wailed Comperou, more feebly than a child, in
spite of his great strength.

"To the water! To the water!" cried Pages and Bergounhoux, trying to get
at the sinner, who was crouching behind the professor.

"If you want to throw him in the water, you'll throw me with him!"

"No! No!"

Finally, they said they would not push him in the water, but upon one
condition; he was to be left in a corner and no one was to speak to him
or to pay any attention to him.

"Yes, that's what he deserves," said the professor. "That's only fair."

After the professor's words, which seemed like a judgment condemning
Comperou, we all huddled together and got as far away from him as
possible, leaving a space between us and the unfortunate man. For
several hours, I should think, he sat there, grief stricken, his lips
moving every now and again, to say:

"I repent! I repent!"

And then Pages and Bergounhoux would cry out:

"It's too late! It's too late! You repent because you're afraid now; you
should have repented six months ago, a year ago."

He gasped painfully, but still repeated:

"I repent! I repent!"

He was in a high fever; all his body shook and his teeth were
chattering.

"I'm thirsty," he said; "give me the boot." There was no more water in
the boot. I got up to go and fetch some, but Pages, who had seen me,
called to me to stop, and at the same moment Uncle Gaspard pulled me by
the arm.

"We swore we would pay no attention to him," he said.

For some minutes Comperou repeated that he was thirsty; seeing that we
would not give him anything to drink, he rose up to go