‘D’ye think there’s any chance of the men recovering that boat?’ inquired Wetherly. ‘The chaps told me when they came aboard to furl the canvas that there was nothen to eat or drink upon the island saving what they’d taken. If they should lose the boat, it must go hard with them, sir.’ ‘They will not lose their boat unless the fellow who was in charge of her lay dead drunk in her bottom: an improbability; for I saw him walk on steady legs to her. My one chance lay in his being asleep. Make your mind easy: he was awakened long ago by the yells of the men, and by this time the boat lies snug at the beach of the lagoon. But why should you have any feeling for the brutes? They would have cut your throat had they succeeded in boarding us. What happened when you were asleep should be indication enough for you of the character of the ruffians, a pretty good warrant of the sort of treatment we might have expected at their hands later on, gold or no gold.’ ‘Mr. Dugdale,’ he answered, ‘all I can say is I’m thankful to the Lord to be where I am. I shall be desperate glad, I shall, when this here woyage is over. I should only just like to see my way to getting enough out of it to set up for myself ashore, for this here’s been a job as has properly sickened me of the sea, and so I don’t mind telling ye, sir.’ ‘There’ll be the salvage of this craft,’ said I; ‘you can have my share, and I’m sure Miss Temple will give you hers.’ ‘Oh, certainly,’ she exclaimed. ‘Then there’ll be your own share,’ I went on. ‘We have to carry the ship in safety to a port first of all. If we can’t pick up hands as we go along, we three will have to manage as best we can. I don’t doubt we shall contrive it; and then you will easily see your way to a few hundreds.’ I saw him grin broadly by the mingled light of the binnacle and star-shine. It was proper to fill him with hope, and to present to his limited understanding some thing definite to work upon. There had been nothing in his behaviour to render me much obliged to him. He had chosen neutral ground in this business, with a little inclination to the safer side: and though he had ventured upon several promises, I had never secretly regarded him as a man who would prove heroically useful at a pinch. However, he was absolutely essential to our safety now, and it was politic that I should seem grateful; though, to be sure, there was always the instinct of self-preservation to keep him straight; by which I mean that he was as eager to end this extraordinary ramble as I was.