d--_mais_--you are the victors"--shrugging his
shoulders--"and you will do your own pleasure."

Winchester colored and bit his lips. The idea of torturing Raoul, either
in body or mind, was the last intention of one so humane, but he felt
indignant at the implied suspicion. Commanding himself, notwithstanding,
he bowed courteously, and intimated that he would remain himself with
his prisoner, until all were over. The Frenchman was surprised, and when
he read the sympathy of the other in the expression of his countenance,
he felt regret for his own distrust, and still more at having
expressed it.

"_Mais, Monsieur_" he answered, "night will soon come--you may have to
pass it on the rocks."

"And if we do, doctor, it is no more than we seamen are used to.
Boat-service is common duty with us. I have only to wrap myself in my
cloak, to enjoy a seaman's comfort."

This settled the matter, and no more was said. The surgeon, a man
accustomed to the exercise of such resources, soon managed to make his
dispositions for the final scene. In clearing the lugger, a hundred
light articles had been thrown on the islet on which she had touched,
and among Others were several rude mattresses of the seamen. Two or
three of these were procured, placed on the smoothest surface of the
rock, and a bed formed for Raoul. The medical man and the seamen would
have erected a tent with a sail, but this the wounded man forbade.

"Let me breathe the free air," he said--"I shall use but little of
it;--let that little be free."

It was useless to oppose such a wish; nor was there any motive for it.
The air was pure, and little need be apprehended from the night, in
behalf of Ghita, surrounded as they were by the pure waters of the
ocean. Even when the Tramontana came, although it was cool, its coolness
was not unpleasant, the adjacent hill sheltering the islets from its
immediate influence.

The English seamen collected some fuel from the spare spars of the
lugger, and lighted a fire on the rock where they had been found. Food
of all sorts was abundant, and several casks of water had been struck
out whole, as provision against a siege. Here they made coffee, and
cooked enough food for the wants of all the party. The distance
prevented their disturbing those who remained near Raoul; while the
light of the fire, which was kept in a cheerful blaze, cast a
picturesque glow upon the group around the dying man, as soon as the
night had fairly set in