Heaping
on more logs till the fire roared again, he tried to warm himself, and
stood so close to the blaze that his garments smoked--they would have
burnt had they not been wet--but no heat seemed to penetrate the
shivering frame of Black Ned.

Next morning the poor man was smitten with a raging fever. From the
first the doctor had little hope of his recovery. With a constitution
fatally injured by dissipation and drink, his chance was very small; but
of course every effort was made to save him. He was laid on a soft bed
of moss in the warmest corner of the hut, and the women took their turn
in nursing him, night and day--the coxswain's wife, however, being the
chief nurse; for, besides being sympathetic and tender by nature, she
had been trained in a rough school where self-reliance and capacity were
constantly called into action in circumstances of difficulty, so that
she was better fitted for the post than either of her companions. But
their efforts were of no avail. After a week, Black Ned died, with a
smile of gratitude on his dark face as he gazed in Hayward's eyes, and
held his hand until the spirit returned to God who gave it.

The gloom cast over the little community by this sudden appearance of
the King of Terrors lasted for many days, and had the good effect of
turning the thoughts of all of them to those subjects which are
obviously and naturally distasteful to fallen man--the soul and the
world to come. But gradually the gloom passed away, though it left in
the party a greater longing than ever to escape from their island
prison.

One day, while some of them were at breakfast, Terrence O'Connor rushed
into the hut with the news that a ship was in sight! Instantly the boat
was manned, and they rowed with all their might towards the vessel,
which was seen like a white speck on the horizon. They rowed to within
four miles of her, with an oar set up as a mast, and a jacket attached
thereto as a flag, but a breeze sprang up, and the strange sail actually
passed on without taking the slightest notice of them--though the people
on board could not have failed to see the boat!

Profound was the disappointment, and violent the indignation, that
filled the thoughts of the castaways as they rowed slowly back to land.

"Sure it's devils that must live in the bodies o' some men," growled
O'Connor, in the bitterness of his soul.

"You're too hard on the devils, Terrence," said Bob Massey. "Some men
in thi