“Yes! Don’t trifle with me!” and Tom’s voice was menacing. “If I call Abe and Joe it will go hard with you. They won’t stand for anything like this.”
“Oh, don’t tell them! Don’t tell!” begged the man, now a trembling coward. “I—I just couldn’t stand it to be hungry and thirsty.”
“How do you suppose we stood it?” asked Tom calmly.
“I—I don’t know. But I—I couldn’t. I had to have more to eat. I have a big appetite.”
“You’ll have to take a reef in it,” went on the lad. “Now hand me over that food and water. We need it—we may need it worse before we’re rescued.”
“And you won’t tell on me.”
“Not this time. But if it occurs again——”
“What’s that? What’s the matter, Tom?” came the voice of the sailor Abe.
The professor started. Through the darkness he looked appealingly at the lad who confronted him.