for the information of the
lieutenant than of the mate.

"I reckon we are all about full enough to go to sleep, and we might as
well turn in," said Graines. "But I suppose you uns mean to sleep on
board of the West Wind."

"I don't reckon we'll do nothin' o' that sort," hiccoughed the mate. "We
done got a p'int to kerry, and I reckon we're gwine to kerry it."

"All right," gobbled the engineer, who overdid his part, if anything.
"What's the p'int, shipmate?"

"Cap'n Sull'dine's sho't handed," replied the mate, his speech turning
somersets as he labored to utter the words, for he still had a portion
of his senses left.

"I see," added Graines, tumbling over, but regaining his
perpendicularity with a trying effort. "Only six men left after you four
done runned away."

"Six!" exclaimed Bird, raising himself up with a desperate struggle,
like a wounded hawk. "No six in it; only two left. He don't, can't no
how, go to sea with only two men. I'll pilot the schooner out by the
Belican Channel an' Mis'sip' Sound. Cap'n Sull'dine 'n' I fit over it,
an' I left, with most of the crew. Hah, ha, ha! He done got 'nuff on't!
Let's take a swigger, and then we gwine to go to sleep, like the rest on
'em."

With no little difficulty Bird Riley got the bottle to his lips, wasting
no little of the liquor in the operation. He was entirely "full" then.
He handed the bottle to the engineer, and dropped over on his back,
overcome by his frequent potions. Graines did not find it necessary to
go through the form of putting the bottle to his lips again, and after
waiting a few minutes he was satisfied that the mate was in a deep
slumber, from which he was not likely to wake for several hours.

But all the information he appeared to be capable of giving had been
imparted, and Graines rose to his feet as steady as he ever was in his
life, having taken hardly a swallow of the repulsive poison. He walked
away from the sleeping group on the ground, halting about twenty feet
from them. Christy saw him, for his eyes were open all the time, and he
had listened with intense interest to the conversation between the
engineer and the mate of the West Wind.

The lieutenant straightened himself up and looked about him. The fire
was entirely extinguished; the four men lay with their feet to the
embers, and not one of them showed any signs of life. Carefully raising
himself to his feet, so as not to disturb the sleeper nearest to him, he
crept away t