But was it all a dream? What was that sensation of pain in his right arm, as if a vice were tightening upon it? He sprang to his feet, and with his arm dragged up a heavy weight that was clinging to it. Shuddering with horror, he shook it violently from him, and a large land-crab fell with a crash on the stones. The wretched man looked round, and could distinguish in the dim light that the rocks were covered with the brutes. They had come out of their holes at sunset, and were about to devour him alive. He seized a large stone, and hurled it at one of them. It broke through the creature's armour and killed it. But the others paid no heed to the death of their fellow, and crawled on with a deliberate slowness. He pulled a branch off one of the dead trees, and with this he was able to thrust them away as they approached. He was obliged to keep watch and defend himself thus through all that long night. Once or twice he dropped off asleep in sheer exhaustion, only to be awakened again a moment afterwards by the closing of sharp pincers on some portion of his body. It was a night the realities of which equalled in horror the worst illusions of a nightmare. Several times he thought of throwing himself off the cliffs and putting an end to his misery, but still he clung to life, and fought for it, as men who value it the least always will when in the presence of a merely physical danger. At daybreak Carew, his eyes bloodshot, his limbs shaking, having the appearance of one who is recovering from an attack of delirium tremens, descended the ravine as hastily as his weak condition permitted. He turned his head aside as he passed the fatal clump of trees. He reached the landing-place, and there found Baptiste and El Chico awaiting him with the cutter. Carew stepped into the boat without saying a word. Baptiste glanced at the haggard face of the captain, but made no remark on his altered appearance. He merely said, "We were anxious about you, so have been off here since daybreak waiting for you." Carew looked inquiringly into the mate's face, but did not dare to utter the question that was on his lips. Baptiste understood. "Yes, I have seen it," he said, in a low voice. Even that callous villain had been awed by the sight at the foot of the ravine. CHAPTER XVII For two more days the barque lay becalmed off the desert island, but not one of the crew ventured on land again. The two Spaniards shrunk with a superstitious terror from further contact with that accursed shore--that _costa maldita_, as they invariably spoke of it.