in!-- of standing once more on
the firm, solid earth! Never, never again, I firmly resolved, would I
venture in any vessel, or trust my life to the mercy of the billows that
had so nearly accomplished our destruction.

CHAPTER XX.

CATCH HIM-- DEAD OR ALIVE!

We made a hasty breakfast off a star-fish that we found stranded on the
beach; but this rather increased our painful thirst, and to find some
means of quenching it we hurried inland at the utmost speed which our
weakened powers could command. We had not run far before we came to a
large house.

"There is sure to be a supply of water here," said Whiskerandos. "Let us
explore the place."

"I fancy that I hear a dripping!" I cried eagerly, as we approached the
door of the back-yard.

The door was indeed closed, and sharp bits of broken bottles, on the top
both of it and the brick wall, rendered it impossible to climb over
them; but I-- my wit quickened by my painful thirst-- discovered in a
moment that, at the bottom of the door, part of the wood had been broken
away, either by time or perhaps the teeth of our brethren, leaving an
opening just large enough for a rat easily to creep through.

I was not one to venture on an unexplored region, so I looked anxiously
through into the yard.

At the opposite side of it there was-- oh, joyful sight!-- a pump, from
which drop by drop fell, with a most inviting sound, into a trough
below. And yet, faint with thirst as I was, the place had an aspect
which alarmed me, and made me fear to venture across the yard. Not far
from the pump, and between it and us, was an open green door, which led
into a garden or pleasure-ground, and though I could see nothing to
alarm me, my quick ear distinguished suspicious sounds in that
direction.

"In with you!" exclaimed Whiskerandos, impatiently. "Don't keep me here,
dying with thirst at the hole."

I drew back with a gesture of caution. "Whiskerandos," said I, "I don't
like the green door open yonder. If any one came through it into the
yard and cut off our retreat!"

"Nothing dare, nothing win!" he exclaimed; "I am thirsty and I must have
water:" and, hurrying through the little opening which I have mentioned,
he was soon eagerly drinking at the trough.

Hesitating, doubting, I was about to follow him, and already my nose was
through the hole, when a sight, at the remembrance of which I shudder
still, made me withdraw it instanter. Through the fatal green door near
th