All these
things seemed to have happened so long ago, and yet we were
living still. Living, did I say? Ay, if such an existence as
ours could be called a life, fourteen of us were living still.
Who would be the next to go? We should then be thirteen.
"An unlucky number!" said Andre with a mournful smile.
During the night the boatswain cast his lines from the stern of
the raft, and, unwilling to trust them to any one else, remained
watching them himself. In the morning I went to ascertain what
success had attended his patience. It was scarcely light, and
with eager eyes he was peering down into the water. He had
neither seen nor heard me coming.
"Well, boatswain!" I said, touching him on the shoulder.
He turned round quickly.
"Those villainous sharks have eaten every morsel of my bait," he
said, in a desponding voice.
"And you have no more left?" I asked.
"No more," he said. Then grasping my arm he added, "and that
only shows me that it is no good doing things by halves."
The truth flashed upon me at once, and I laid my hand upon his
mouth. Poor Walter!
CHAPTER XLII.
JANUARY 9th and 10th.--On the 9th the wind dropped, and there was
a dead calm; not a ripple disturbed the surface of the long
undulations as they rose and fell beneath us; and if it were not
for the slight current which is carrying us we know not whither,
the raft would be absolutely stationary.
The heat was intolerable; our thirst more intolerable still; and
now it was that for the first time I fully realized how the
insufficiency of drink could cause torture more unendurable than
the pangs of hunger.
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