with biscuit and cheese, washed down with claret and water.
There were plenty of other provisions on board, but no one cared to go in search of them, not on this day at anyrate, and the cooks were not at all inspired. They sat down as near to each other as possible, and forced themselves to eat the food, but the meal was not enlivened by any conversation; indeed, the captain's and mates' places, which they avoided, seemed as if occupied by unseen watchers, who looked with stern and reproachful eyes upon them while they eat.
The doctor, however, at the close of this silent repast, went into the pantry, and returned with two bottles of brandy, which he opened and placed before them without a word. All helped themselves from these bottles, pouring out the contents into tumblers instead of glasses and emptying them quickly. Then they lit the captain's cigars, the women as well as the men, as there were no cigarettes, and proceeded to the poop to smoke them.
As they emerged from the companion way, Dennis, who was first, started violently, fell back a step with a cry of horror, then, recovering himself quickly, he laughed feebly as he exclaimed,—
"Cuss me if I didn't fancy I saw the fellow whose fingers I cut off still hanging on to the wheel."
"Don't, Dennis," cried both women, with violent shivers, for instinctively they had both glanced towards that part of the bulwarks where they had sat the night before with the first and third mates, and they also seemed to see the poor, foolish fellows waiting for them there.
It was a dreadful experience during the dark watches of that night to these criminals, unbelieving and hardened although they were, for not one of them
