"If the end comes, and you know it, and I am not near you, will you try and find me, and say a kind word to me before I die?"
He gave her the promise, and hurried suddenly from her, for his heart was fit to break, and he dared not trust himself to say more.
The third day passed, and the fourth. No sign of succor near. Hope began to die.
On the sixth morning, when the roll was called, one of the passengers did not answer to his name. It was Mr. Bracegirdle.
"He is asleep," said one.
They shook him, but he did not move. He was dead. This was the first death, and it affected them deeply. Before he was sewn in the canvas, he was searched, in the anticipation of finding something useful. A surprising discovery was then made. He had in his pocket-book and round his waist bank-notes and bills for more than ten thousand pounds. But nobody knew any thing about him; he died, as he had lived among them a mystery. After his body was slipped into the sea, a whisper went about that the money found on him had not been honestly come by.
That same night two sailors were washed into the sea. When it became known, there were some among them who secretly rejoiced in the thought that there would not be so many mouths to feed. Nearly a third of the provisions was eaten, and the women were very weak. Little Emma Pigeon held out the best; but that was because her mother, from even her small portion, gave some to her child between the times of serving out the provisions; the child also was petted and nourished by the other women. Rough-and-Ready as especially considerate to the females. Joshua saw him chewing something, and wondered what it was. Noticing the look of inquiry on Joshua's face, Rough-and-Ready enlightened him.
"I am eating leather," he said.
Joshua stared at him. Then Rough-and-Ready took from his pocket a dozen very thin strips of leather which he had cut out of his boot, and told Joshua that he had found a new food. He gave Joshua a couple of strips--very thin they were, almost like a wafer--and Joshua set to work on them, and after some difficulty, chewed them to a pulp and swallowed them.
"There's nothing like leather," said Rough-and-Ready with a quiet laugh. "It wants strong teeth, but it fills up an empty place in the stomach."