“Well, we can last it out for another week—with care,” said Tom slowly.
“And we’ll be careful in two ways,” spoke Abe. “We’ll eat and drink as little as we can, and we’ll watch to see that none of our supplies disappear in the night.”
He looked meaningly at Mr. Skeel as he spoke, and the professor turned his head away.
But even the discovery of the hidden food supply could not better their condition for long. The water, warm and brackish as it was, went drop by drop, for it was so hot they had to wet their lips and tongues often. The food, too, while it stopped their hunger, made them the more thirsty. Jackie, too, seemed to develop a fever, and to need more water than usual.
On and on they sailed. They were in the middle of the second week, and saw no hope of rescue. They hoped for rain, that their water supply might be renewed, but the sky was brazen and hot by day and star-studded by night.
“I—I can’t stand it much longer,” murmured Abe, at the close of a hot afternoon. “I—I’ve got to do something. Look at all that water out there,” and he motioned toward the heaving ocean.
“Water! Yes, it’s water fair enough, matie,” spoke Joe soothingly, “but them as drinks it loses their minds. Bear up a little longer, and surely we’ll be picked up, or sight land.”
“I don’t believe so!” exclaimed Abe gloomily.