the carpenter in Captain Redwood's ship, he regards the
captain with a feeling almost fraternal. He had been one of his oldest
and steadiest hands, and long service has led to a fast friendship
between him and his old skipper.

On the part of the Irishman, this feeling is extended to the youthful
couple who recline, with clasped hands, along the sternmost seat of the
pinnace.

As for the Malay, thirst and hunger have also made their marks upon him;
but not as with those of Occidental race. It may be that his bronze
skin does not show so plainly the pallor of suffering; but, at all
events, he still looks lithe and life-like, supple and sinewy, as if he
could yet take a spell at the oar, and keep alive as long as skin and
bone held together. If all are destined to die in that open boat, he
will certainly be the last. He with the hollow eyes looks as if he
would be the first.

Down upon this wretched group, a picture of misery itself, shines the
hot sun of the tropics; around it, far as eye could reach, extends the
calm sea, glassed, and glancing back his lays, as though they were
reflected from a sheet of liquid fire; beneath them gleams a second
firmament through the pellucid water, a sky peopled with strange forms
that are not birds: more like are they to dragons; for among them can be
seen the horrid form of the devil-fish, and the still more hideous
figure of the hammer-headed shark. And alone is that boat above them,
seemingly suspended in the air, and only separated from these dreadful
monsters by a few feet of clear water, through which they can dart with
the speed of electricity. Alone, with no land in sight, no ship or
sail, no other boat--nothing that can give them a hope.

All bright above, around, and beneath; but within their hearts only
darkness and the dread of death!

CHAPTER TWO.

THE HAMMER-HEAD.

For some time the castaways had been seated in moody silence, now and
then glancing at the corpse in the bottom of the boat, some of them no
doubt thinking how long it might be before they themselves would occupy
the same situation.

But now and then, also, their looks were turned upon one another, not
hopefully, but with a mechanical effort of despair.

In one of these occasional glances, Captain Redwood noticed the
unnatural glare in the eyes of the surviving sailor, as also did the
Irishman. Simultaneously were both struck with it, and a significant
look was exchanged between them.