ion to be made by lot. When it comes to crises like these,--to
questions of life and death,--men must yield up their opposition to the
_ballot_, and acknowledge its equity.

Le Gros and his cruel bodyguard would have opposed it had they been
strong enough,--as do equally cruel politicians who are strong enough,--
but the bully still doubted the strength of his party. A proposal so
atrocious had beep made, in the case of little William, at the very
outset, and had met with but slight opposition. Had it not been for the
brave English sailor, the lad would certainly have fallen a sacrifice to
the horrid appetites of these horrid men. With one of themselves,
however, the case was different. Each had a few adherents, who would
not have submitted to such an arbitrary cruelty; and Le Gros was
influenced by the fear of a general "skrimmage," in which more than one
life,--among the rest perhaps his own,--might be forfeited. The time
for such a high-handed measure had not yet arrived; and when it came to
the question of "Who dies next?" it was still found necessary to resort
to the _ballot_.

That question was once more propounded,--now for the third time,--Le
Gros himself acting as the spokesman. No one said anything in reply, or
made any sign of being opposed to an answer being given. On the
contrary, all appeared to yield, if not a cheerful, at least a tacit
assent to what they all knew to be meant for a proposal,--knowing also
its fearful nature and consequences.

They also comprehended whence the answer was to come. Twice before had
they consulted that dread oracle, whose response was certain death to
one of their number. Twice before had they recognised and submitted to
its decree. No preliminaries needed to be discussed. These had been
long ago arranged. There was nothing more to do than cast the lots.

On the moment after Le Gros had put the question, a movement was visible
among the men to whom it was addressed. One might have expected it to
startle them; but it did not appear to do this,--at least, to any great
extent. Some only showed those signs of fear distinguishable by
blanched cheeks and white lips; but there were some too delirious to
understand the full import of what was to follow; and the majority of
the crew had become too callow with suffering to care much even for
life!

Most that could, however,--for there were some too feeble to stand
erect,--rose to their feet, and gathered around the