deviation.

I reached forth my hand, then, to clutch the precious morsel. Judge my
astonishment when I touched the spot where I supposed it to be lying,
and found _it was not there_!

At first, I fancied I might be mistaken--that perhaps I had not left it
in the usual place on my shelf. There it certainly was not.

I felt the cloth cup, for that was in my hand full of water. The knife
was in its place--so, too, the little notched stick, and the pieces of
the string which I had used in measuring the butt--but no half biscuit!

Could I have put it anywhere else? I thought not; and yet, to make
sure, I felt all over the bottom of my cell, and among the folds and
wrinkles of the cloth, and even in the pockets both of my jacket and
trousers. I felt in my buskins too, for these were not upon my feet, as
I no longer needed them, but lying idle in a corner. I left not an inch
of the place that I did not examine--and minutely too--yet still no half
biscuit could be found!

I looked carefully for it, not so much on account of its value; but that
its disappearance from the shelf was something rather strange--stranger
still that I could nowhere lay my hand upon it.

_Had I eaten it_?

I began to fancy that I had done so. Perhaps, during a period of
absent-mindedness, I might have swallowed it up, without ever thinking
of what I was doing. Certainly, I had no remembrance of having tasted
food since I ate its counterpart--the other half; and if I had eaten it
also, it must have done me very little good. I had neither enjoyed the
meal, nor yet did my stomach appear to have received much benefit from
it, since I was just as hungry as if I had not tasted food that day.

I recollected perfectly having placed it alongside the knife and cup;
and how could it part from the place, unless it had been taken away by
my own hand? I could not have thrown it accidentally from the little
shelf, for I did not remember making a movement in that direction. But
even so, it would still have been somewhere about me? It could not get
underneath the butt, for the crevice there was closed up, regularly
caulked with pieces of the cloth. I had done this for the purpose of
making a level surface to rest upon.

Certainly the half biscuit was not to be found. It was gone--whether
down my throat or in some other way, I could not decide--but if the
former, I thought to myself, what a pity I had eaten it without knowing
what I was about, for