crew as kept sober had been trying for
days. Some were even at that moment engaged with hook and line, angling
for the ferocious fish,--their hooks floating far out in the water,
baited with _human flesh_.

It was only the mechanical continuation of a scheme that had long since
proved to be of no avail,--a sort of despairing struggle against
improbability. The sharks had taken the alarm; perhaps from observing
the fate of that one of their number that had gone too near the odd
embarkation; or, perhaps, warned by some mysterious instinct, that,
sooner or later, they would make a grand banquet on those who were so
eager to feast upon them.

In any case, no sharks had been taken, or were likely to be taken; and
once more the eyes of the famishing castaways were wolfishly turned upon
one another, while their thoughts reverted to that horrible alternative
that was to save them from starvation.

Le Gros--on board the raft, as upon the deck of the slave-ship--still
held a sort of fatal ascendency over his comrades; and with Ben Brace no
longer to oppose his despotic propensities, he had established over his
fellow-skeletons a species of arbitrary rule.

His conduct had all along been guided by no more regard for fair-play
than was just necessary to keep his subordinates from breaking out into
open mutiny; and among these the weaker ones fared even worse than their
fellows, bad as that was.

A few of the stronger,--who formed a sort of bodyguard to the bully, and
were ready to stand up for him in case of extremity,--shared his
ascendency over the rest; and to these were distributed larger rations
of water, along with the more choice morsels of their horrid food.

This partiality had more than once led to scenes, that promised to end
in bloodshed; and but for this occasional show of resistance, Le Gros
and his party might have established a tyranny that would have given
them full power over the _lives_ of their feebler companions.

Things were fast tending in this direction,--merging, as it were, into
absolute monarchy,--a monarchy of "cannibals," of which Le Gros himself
would be "king." It had not yet, however, quite come to that,--at least
when it became a question of life and death. When the necessity arose
of finding a fresh victim for their horrible but necessary sacrifice,
there was still enough republicanism left among the wretches to
influence the decision in a just and equitable manner, and cause the
select