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Before he died, in a few broken words, he thanked Miss Herbey and myself for the kindness we had shown him. A crumpled letter fell from his hand, and in a voice that was scarcely audible from weakness, he said : "It is my mother's letter; the last I had from her she was expecting me home; but she will never see me more. Oh, put it to my lips let me kiss it before I die. Mother! mother!
Afterward, when we were quite alone, Miss Herbey asked me if I would grant her a favor. "Certainly, Miss Herbey; anything you like to ask," I replied; and this time my manner was kinder and more genial. "Mr. Kazallon," she said, "I am weaker than you, and shall probably die first. Promise me that, if I do, you will throw me into the sea!"
I told M. Letourneur that I could not help hoping that there might yet be time to reach the land before the last crisis came. Falsten was about to give vent to an expres- sion of despair, but he was soon silenced by Miss Herbey asserting her confidence that all would yet be well. Curtis at once divided the crew into two sets, and made them work incessantly, turn and turn about, at the pumps.
Miss Herbey was the first to follow my example, but soon Curtis, Falsten, and all the rest were on their knees and drinking eagerly, The rough sailors seemed as if by a magic touch transformed back from ravenous beasts to human beings, and I saw several of them raise their hands to heaven in silent gratitude, Andre and his father were the last to drink. "But where are we?" I asked at length.
She seems to look without seeing, and listen without hearing, and her sole occupation consists in giving her orders to her companion, Miss Herbey, a young English girl of about twenty. Miss Herbey is extremely pretty.
Lieutenant Walter suffers more than any of us from the scarcity of water, and I noticed that Miss Herbey reserved almost the whole of her own share for his use. Kind and compassionate as ever, the young girl does all that lies in her power to relieve the poor fellow's sufferings. "Mr. Kazallon," she said to me this morning, "that young man gets manifestly weaker every day."
As there were eleven of us on board, there were ten chances to one in each one's favor a proportion which would be diminished if Miss Herbey were excluded; so that the young lady was forced to take her chance among the rest. It was then half-past ten, and the boatswain, who had been roused from his lethargy by what the carpenter had said, insisted that the drawing should take place immediately.
Kazallon," she said to me, "do you think we are fated to die of hunger?" "Yes, Miss Herbey, I do," I replied, in a hard, cold tone. "How long do you suppose we have to live?" she asked again. "I cannot say; perhaps we shall linger on longer than we imagine." "The strongest constitutions suffer the most, do they not?" she said.
Miss Herbey was bound by a rope passed round her waist to one of the uprights that had supported our tent, and by the glare of the lightning I could see that her countenance was as serene and composed as ever. Then the storm began to rage indeed. Flash followed flash, peal followed peal in quick succession. Our eyes were blinded, our ears deafened, with the roar and glare.
The hurricane had increased, and the heavy waves, heated to a strange heat by the general temperature, dashed over us until we were drenched to the skin. Curtis, Dowlas, the boatswain, and the sailors did what they could to strengthen the raft with additional ropes. M. Letourneur placed himself in front of Andre to shelter him from the waves. Miss Herbey stood upright and motionless as a statue.
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