“Don’t talk any more,” whispered Nic softly, “or he’ll come back.”
“Right,” said Pete, and the snoring recommenced. And as Nic lay there in the darkness, thinking over his companion’s words, and feeling that it would have been madness to have made any attempt to leave the barrack-like shed, with watchful enemies both within and without, and the certainty in his mind that Humpy Dee’s intention was to betray Pete so as to get him flogged for attempting to escape, the snoring went on, with a strange lulling effect. He had toiled hard that day in the burning sunshine, and had lain down after his supper with that pleasant sensation of weariness which comes to the healthy and strong; and he had been feeling a glow of satisfaction and thankfulness for the full recovery of all his faculties, when Pete had spoken as he did. It was not surprising, then, that the heavy breathing of his companion should have the effect it had, and that, just when he was in the midst of pleasant thoughts of the possibility of escape, he should suddenly pass from extreme wakefulness into deep sleep, in which he saw the red cliffs of Devon again, with the sparkling sea, and listened to the soft murmur of the falls low down in the combe. Back home once more.
Then he opened his eyes with a start.
“I’ve been asleep,” he said to himself, as he listened to Pete’s heavy breathing; “not for many minutes, though,” he mused; and then he wondered and stared, for he could see the cracks and knot-holes of the wooden building against the grey dawn of the rapidly-coming day.
“Why, I must have been asleep for hours and hours!” he mentally ejaculated.
Proof came the next moment that it must have been eight hours at least, for the dull booming bellow of the great conch shell blown by one of the blacks rang out, and Pete started up in his bunk to stare at Nic and rub his calf softly.
“Had a good night, Pete?” said the lad.
“Tidy,” said the man softly; “but one o’ the dogs had me by the leg.”
“What! Surely you didn’t go?”
“Ay, but I did. He let go, though, when he smelt the roast meat. Smelt better than raw.”