nce, not only for the surviving mutineers
who had turned up so strangely, but for the little community at Penguin
Castle as well, that they did not make their appearance on the scene
earlier; for, had they came at the trying period, when famine, so to
speak, reigned in the land, they certainly would not have been "welcome
guests!" Of course, even then, Mr Meldrum and the others would have
felt bound to do as much for them as they could; but as at that time the
castaways were almost near upon starvation, they could ill have afforded
to help others in the same predicament, however much charity might have
constrained them.

But, now, things were very different in regard to their larder, wild
ducks being plentiful enough and another heavy "bag" of rabbits having
been secured as soon as the road to the warren had become passable
through the partial subsidence of the flood in the valley; while, in
addition to those stores of substantial food, there was Kerguelen
cabbage _ad libitum_ at their disposal--all the fresher and more juicy
through being covered up by the snow and watered by the spring rains--
besides an abundance of the haddock-like, spike-headed fish to be had
for the catching in the bay, not to speak of the dried penguins as a
last resource, should the other articles of diet fail to suit or pall on
the palate after a time. Indeed, as Mr Lathrope observed frequently
when seated at the central table of their general room and disposing of
the savoury residue of some gipsy stew of Snowball's concoction, during
this period of plenty, which came in such pleasing contrast to their
recent scarcity of provender, they were "living like fighting cocks, and
no mistake!"

Such being the state of things at "Penguin Castle," it was not long
before the emaciated men, who arrived in the longboat almost at death's
door through want, were restored to health. Mr Meldrum, however, took
the precaution of binding them down by the most stringent conditions as
to their obedience and orderly conduct before admitting them on the same
terms as the rest to the common membership of the community--it being
clearly put before them that the least _lache_ or inattention to orders
would subject them to expulsion, when they would have to shift for
themselves and give a wide berth to those of the settlement.

Captain Dinks had recovered so far now that he was able to sit up for a
short time each day; but the length of his illness and the amount o