iced to show them that their chance was
almost hopeless; the frigate would pass them at a distance of about six
miles, and with every eye on board her intently fixed upon the chase,
what prospect was there, in that uncertain light, of so small an object
as the boat being seen at so great a distance? Nevertheless, they
toiled on with dogged perseverance, and did not abandon their efforts
until the frigate had passed them, and her topsails had sunk below the
horizon. Then indeed they laid in their oars, and directed their whole
attention to Walford, whose condition became more alarming every moment.

Not that he made any complaint. The poor fellow indeed seemed to be
quite unconscious of his pain and weakness; but his ghastly pallor, his
laboured breathing, and the convulsive shudders which agitated his frame
from time to time were to George a tolerably clear indication that
dissolution was near at hand.

He was still quite light-headed, his mind wandering in feverish haste
from scene to scene of his boyhood, as was evident from the rapid
disjointed sentences which poured uninterruptedly from his lips. George
was able to gather pretty clearly from them that, even as a lad, Walford
had been wilful, headstrong, and obstinate, prone to go his own way
without much consideration for the wishes of others, and there were
occasional wild words and broken exclamations which seemed to indicate
that, even whilst little more than a mere child, he had allowed himself
to be betrayed into actual crime. And as he lay there, gasping his life
away, the follies of boyhood and the graver offences of more recent days
seemed to be in some way jumbled up hopelessly in his disordered mind
with a confused idea of the urgent necessity for speedy repentance of
both. There could be no doubt that, notwithstanding the disordered
state of the unhappy man's intellect, conscience was busily at work with
him; that he was already beginning to dimly see the error of his ways
and the hollowness--the utter unprofitableness--of his past life, and
possibly also the critical nature of his position. But the mind was too
completely shattered to avail itself of these promptings, and the
remorse and regret which had tardily come to him found expression only
in the simple pleadings for pardon which a child offers to its grieved
parent. This distressing state of things lasted at intervals all
through the night and well into the following day, when the dying ma