you find in all South American cities, where
earthquakes are always expected. Thoresby
had enough of money, but nobody but I would
go near him. I used to steal out to buy
things for him at a distance; for people
would not serve me if they knew I had been
attending some one with the sickness. The
weather was very hot, and the stillness of
some of the streets, as I went alone in the
bright open day, gave me a strange sensation.
At night-time I used to doze beside my
patient's bed, and wake up now and then
when he stirred, or wanted drink. A little
Jew doctor in the town sold me medicines
for him, but he would not come to see him,
and Thoresby, after taking the medicines for
awhile, would take no more.

For all this, I never lost heart, till poor
Thoresby began to talk very much, which
gave me a great dread lest he should die
mad. The fear of this made me more serious
than ever I had been in my life. I thought
that in that event I must inevitably die too;
and one night I sat, with my lamp beside me
at a little side-table, and wrote a long letter
for my uncle and aunt in England, meaning
to write outside it, that it was to be sent to
them if I died. While I was writing this,
Thoresby began to mutter in his sleep, and
then, suddenly awaking, he called me to the
bedside, and said he had something to tell
me. What he told me, I will tell pretty
nearly in his own words.

"When I was such a lad as you," said
Thoresby, "I ran away from a good home,
and went to sea. I came back to England
many times, visited secretly my native place,
saw my father and mother, and once even
heard them speak; but they never saw me
again, or knew where I had gone. How this
was does not matter; for it is no part of my
story. Nearly thirty years ago, I sailed
from Montreal for Liverpool, aboard a vessel
laden with timber. We had a crew of
thirteen persons, including the captain; besides
four passengers —a physician and his wife,
and an old Canadian Frenchman and his
niece. It was in the month of January,
and we had a fair wind; but we soon came
among ice-fields, and had bitter cold watches,
which make men think of home, and
comfortable fires ashore. Many a time I went
aloft, and, holding on with hands or belly
to the frozen yards, and fumbling with
numbed fingers at the stiffened reefs, have
thought I must go off with every blast
that cut me in the face. We kept among
the ice a long time, and got far out of our
course: so at last the captain told the
passengers that, as he had not counted on
the delay, he must shorten the allowance of
food for all.

"This set me thinking. What if we should
be many weeks in that situation? Our
provisions must be all gone, and we must perish
one by one of hunger and cold, or do
something worse. I had read stories of drawing
lots aboard ships in such a situation; and at
night I dreamed about it. I do believe it
was not so much the dread of death as of
coming to be one at that horrible kind of
feast, that frightened me. However. I
devised a plan— a selfish plan it was— for
escaping from such a horror. Our allowance
of food was as yet very slightly diminished.
Every day I saved some portion; and
sometimes, on pretence of being more hungry
than usual, I bought the ration of a man who
was sickly, and could not eat. Such of those
hoardings as could be preserved. I put away
in a box, inside my chest, and now and then,
when I went down to my hammock, and
found myself alone, I used to open it, and
contemplate my store with a miserly sort of
satisfaction, which is horrible to me now to
think of; for I knew that in my secret heart
I looked forward to a time when the bottle
of water which I hoarded there, would have
become more costly than any wine that
mortal lips ever tasted; when, if I had an
opportunity, I meant to use my treasure
slowly, to maintain my own life, while my
companions starved.

"The Frenchman and his niece I knew well,
for I had lodged in their house. He was
a superannuated government clerk with a
small pension, who was going to live in
France for the benefit of his health. The
niece was an intelligent and pretty young
woman, who spoke English well; for her
mother was an Englishwoman. They were
cabin-passengers, but had taken a passage
at an intermediate sum, which restricted
them to plainer food than others got; but
they fared no worse than the rest now.
The rations were reduced again, and we all
began to feel the pinch.

"We had heavy snow-storms, succeeded by
bright moonlight nights, awful in their silence;
but, at last, the ice became rarer, and we
began to sail clear. However, a worse trouble
awaited us. From the moment that the last
ice left our sides, it was manifest that we
were sinking rapidly, from some great injury
to the vessel's bottom. It was in the night
time when we discovered it; and, in the hurry
and confusion, little was done to save stores
until too late. One man, who volunteered to
go below, was killed by the floating timber.
The water bilged up the hatches, and kept
the vessel flooded amidships; but the upper
deck was comparatively dry, for the timber
aboard kept the vessel afloat, and there we
all took refuge. We knew she could not
sink, being merely waterlogged.

"When the first alarm was given, I was
below, and I thought at once of my box. It
was heavy; but, taking it on my shoulder, I
crept on deck, and groped my way aft
with it. On the way I ran against several
persons coming forward; but, in the darkness
they took no heed of me, and I deposited
my treasure in a boat on the after-deck, and
covered it as well as I could with coils of