, now and then, some low murmurs,
which betokened the terrible pain they felt, and the fortitude both
showed in enduring it.

Now and then, too, their father spoke to them. At first he had essayed
to cheer them with words of encouragement; but as time passed, these
seemed to sound hollow in their ears as well as his own, and he changed
them to speeches enjoining resignation, and words that told of the
"Better Land". He reminded them that their mother was there, and they
should all soon join her. They would go to her together; and how happy
this would be after their toils and sufferings; after so many perils and
fatigues, it would be but pleasure to find rest in heaven.

In this way he tried to win their thoughts from dwelling on the terrors
of death, every moment growing darker and seeming nearer.

The fire burned down, smouldered, and went out. No one had thought of
replenishing it with fuel. Though there were faggots enough collected
not far off, the toil of bringing them forward seemed too much for their
wasted strength and deadened energies. Fire could be of no service to
them now. It had done them no good while ablaze; and since it had gone
out, they cared not to renew it. If they were to die, their last
moments could scarcely be more bitter in darkness than in light.

Still Captain Redwood wished for light. He wished for it, so that he
might once more look upon the faces of his two sweet suffering pets,
before the pallor of death should overspread them. He would perhaps
have made an effort to rekindle the fire, or requested one of the others
to do it; but just then, on turning his eyes to the east, he saw a
greyish streak glimmering above the line of the sea-horizon. He knew it
was the herald of coming day; and he knew, moreover, that, in the
latitude they were in, the day itself would not linger long behind.

"Thank God!" was the exclamation that came from his lips, low muttered,
but in fervent emphasis. "Thank God, I shall see them once more!
Better their lives should not go out in the darkness."

As he spoke the words, and as if to gratify him, the streak on the
eastern sky seemed rapidly to grow broader and brighter, its colour of
pale grey changing to golden yellow; and soon after, the upper limb of
the glorious tropical sun showed itself over the smooth surface of the
Celebes Sea.

As his cheering rays touched the trees of the forest, then eyes were
first turned upon one another, and then