"Thank you for your offer," answered Dr Cuff; "I am too ill to do any duty, and prefer remaining where I am. Marsden and the boy must speak for themselves." "Thank you for your offer," I answered bluntly, "but I have made up my mind to remain with Dr Cuff, and I hope Tom Bigg will stay by me." Captain Hansleig seemed somewhat annoyed at this reply. "Why, what do you think of me and my craft that you refuse to join us?" he asked. "Provided a person does nothing to offend, really he cannot be called on to express his thoughts," observed the doctor. "It is enough to tell you that Marsden is anxious to reach Ceylon, and unless you are going there it is a sufficient reason rarely for his declining to join your vessel." Dr Cuff spoke in so calm and yet so resolute a tone that the reply seemed fully to satisfy Captain Hansleig. "Well, every man to his taste," he answered, "If you prefer living on in this desolate spot, I'll not force you away. Only I warn you that it is very little known, and very many months may pass before any other vessel may touch here. I happened to be in want of a supply of turtle, and cocoanuts, and fresh water, or I should not have come near the place." I told him that I should abide by my first decision, and he did not press the matter further. The slaver traffickers, as the doctor called them, or pirates, as I suspect they also deserved to be called, spent a whole day and two nights on the island. The nights they employed in catching turtles--the days in carrying them on board, and in procuring cocoa-nuts. I observed that they made Sills and Brown work as hard as themselves, ill as they still were from the effects of the fish they had eaten. I doubted, indeed, whether either of them could recover, they looked so wretchedly ill when they went on board. We could, however, have done them no good had they remained; and though it was satisfactory to see them and their new associates take their departure, yet I could not help feeling a pang of regret as I saw the vessel once more spread her sails and stand away to the southward.