was their number; and every now and then there was a scurry among them,
and porpoises and dog-fish broke in and feasted on them. All this they
saw, yet could not catch one of those billions for their lives. Thus they
were tantalized as well as starved.

The next day was like the last, with this difference, that the sufferers
could no longer endure their torments in silence.

The lady moaned constantly. The sailors groaned, lamented, and cursed.

The sun baked and blistered, and the water glared.

The sails being useless, the sailors rigged them as an awning, and salt
water was constantly thrown over them.

Mr. Hazel took a baler and drenched his own clothes and Miss Rolleston's
upon their bodies. This relieved the hell of thirst in some degree. But
the sailors could not be persuaded to practice it.

In the afternoon Hazel took Miss Rolleston's Bible from her wasted hands,
and read aloud the forty-second Psalm.

When he had done, one of the sailors asked him to pass the Bible forward.
He did so; and in half an hour the leaves were returned him; the vellum
binding had been cut off, divided, and eaten.

He looked piteously at the leaves, and, after a while, fell upon his
knees and prayed silently.

He rose, and, with Miss Rolleston's consent, offered the men the leaves
as well. "It is the Bread of Life for men's souls, not their bodies,"
said he. "But God is merciful; I think he will forgive you; for your need
is bitter."

Cooper replied that the binding was man's, but the pages were God's; and,
either for this or another more obvious reason, the leaves were declined
for food.

All that afternoon Hazel was making a sort of rough spoon out of a
fragment of wood.

The night that followed was darker than usual, and, about midnight, a
hand was laid on Helen Rolleston's shoulder and a voice whispered--"Hush!
say nothing. I have got something for you."

At the same time something sweet and deliciously fragrant was put to her
lips; she opened her mouth and received a spoonful of marmalade. Never
did marmalade taste like that before. It dissolved itself like ambrosia
over her palate and even relieved her parched throat in some slight
degree by the saliva it excited.

Nature could not be resisted; her body took whatever he gave. But her
high mind rebelled.

"Oh, how base I am," said she, and wept.

"Why, it is your own," said he soothingly; "I took it out of your cabin
expressly for you."

"At least oblige me