the combined effects of the injury, exposure,
and want, he was wasting visibly away; his strength was so completely
gone that he was quite unable to move without assistance; and George had
once or twice asked himself the question, whether he was justified in
involving this poor weak demented creature in the sufferings which there
was only too much reason to believe still awaited them. Would it not
have been truer kindness, he asked himself, to have left Walford in some
sheltered spot where there would be a certainty of his being speedily
found and taken care of? But reflection satisfied him that it would
not. To have left him in the hands of the Spaniards would have been to
leave him in slavery for the remainder of his life; and, judging by
himself, Leicester felt that death itself would be preferable to such a
fate. Then, again, there was the possibility--a slender one, it is
true, but still a possibility--of their speedy rescue; in which case,
with the care and nursing which he would be sure to receive, there was
no reason why Walford should not recover both his health and his
intellect.

So, comforting himself with the reflection that he was doing the best he
could for the unfortunate man, George arranged a comfortable berth for
him in the sternsheets of the boat, and deposited him thereon, still
lashed up in his canvas hammock, the grass packing of which formed a
comparatively soft and comfortable support to his emaciated frame.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

DEATH CLAIMS A VICTIM.

The breeze continued fresh until about midnight, after which it lessened
a trifle, and came off from the larboard quarter. Daybreak found the
boat off the north-eastern extremity of the Isle of Pines, and about
five miles distant from that curious chain of islets called by the
Spaniards the Islas de Mangles, which curves out like a breakwater
across the northern face of the island. Their hunger, which had to some
extent been appeased by their last plentiful meal of wild raspberries,
and which had been altogether forgotten in the excitement of their
subsequent flight now returned to them in full force, and, the breeze
failing them, George determined to put the line overboard and try for a
few fish.

He was successful beyond his most sanguine expectations, half-a-dozen
fine but grotesque-looking fish speedily rewarding his efforts. The
idea of devouring them raw was rather repulsive, but as there was no
possible means of cooking them