him; and
so we shall be, you know. We can hide away in some tree, or in a
cavern, or somewhere or other till the ship sails, and then we must
trust to what may turn up to get away from the place, wherever it may
be."

"The chances are that it may be a desert island, and one rarely or never
visited by ships. If so, perhaps we may have to live on it for years
without being able to escape from it," I observed.

"Well, no matter if that is the case," he answered; "anything is better
than living among these cut-throats."

"I agree with you," said I; "but what is to become of the doctor? We
must not leave him behind."

"Certainly not," said Jerry; "we will tell him what we propose, and I
daresay he will find means to follow us. If he cannot, perhaps he will
propose some plan which will be better than ours."

We talked till we talked ourselves very hungry, and were not sorry when
the black cook brought us a bowl of farinha for our breakfast. We
should not have objected to a slice of cold beef or a piece of fish, but
we agreed that it would be wiser to take what was offered to us, and
appear thankful. The doctor was asked in to breakfast with the captain.
He certainly would rather not have gone, but as nothing could be gained
by refusing, and something might by accepting the invitation, he went.
Tom Congo, the cook, did not forget old Surley, but, when the officers
were below at breakfast, brought him a mess, which he gobbled up with no
little satisfaction.

Silva appeared to take no notice of us; yet we could not but believe
that it was owing to his intercession our lives had been spared, and
that we were not ill-treated. It will be remembered that, after the
story we heard of the escape of the convicts from Juan Fernandez,
serious suspicions had been entertained of his character. We had now,
from finding him associated with pirates, every reason to believe that
our suspicions were correct. Still, pirate as he was, all the right
feelings of our nature had not been blunted in him. While on board the
_Triton_ he had always behaved well, and he now showed us that he was
grateful for the kindness he had received. Such was the opinion Jerry
and I formed of him.

For three or four days things went on much in the same way as at first.
We had our food brought us regularly by our friend the black cook, and
were allowed to walk the deck as long as we liked, and to creep into our
cabin at night. Nobody interfered wit