by eating some yourself, sir," said Helen, "or" (with
a sudden burst) "I will die ere I touch another morsel."

"I feel the threat, Miss Rolleston; but I do not need it, for I am very,
very hungry. But no; if _I_ take any, I must divide it all with _them._
But if you will help me unrip the jacket, I will suck the inside--after
you."

Helen gazed at him, and wondered at the man, and at the strange love
which had so bitterly offended her when she was surrounded by comforts;
but now it extorted her respect.

They unripped the jacket, and found some moisture left. They sucked it,
and it was a wonderful and incredible relief to their parched gullets.

The next day was a fearful one. Not a cloud in the sky to give hope of
rain; the air so light it only just moved them along; and the sea glared,
and the sun beat on the poor wretches, now tortured into madness with
hunger and thirst.

The body of man, in this dire extremity, can suffer internal agony as
acute as any that can be inflicted on its surface by the knife; and the
cries, the screams, the groans, the prayers, the curses, intermingled,
that issued from the boat, were not to be distinguished from the cries of
men horribly wounded in battle, or writhing under some terrible operation
in hospitals.

Oh, it was terrible and piteous to see and hear the boat-load of ghastly
victims, with hollow cheeks and wild-beast eyes, go groaning, cursing,
and shrieking loud, upon that fair glassy sea, below that purple vault
and glorious sun.

Toward afternoon, the sailors got together, forward, and left Hazel and
Miss Rolleston alone in the stern. This gave him an opportunity of
speaking to her confidentially. He took advantage of it, and said, "Miss
Rolleston, I wish to consult you. Am I justified in secreting the
marmalade any longer? There is nearly a spoonful apiece."

"No," said Helen, "divide it among them all. Oh, if I had only a woman
beside me, to pray with, and cry with, and die with; for die we must."

"I am not so sure of that," said Hazel faintly, but with a cool fortitude
all his own. "Experience proves that the human body can subsist a
prodigious time on very little food. And saturating the clothes with
water is, I know, the best way to allay thirst. And women, thank Heaven,
last longer than men, under privations."

"I shall not last long, sir," said Helen. "Look at their eyes."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that those men there are going to kill me."