Strange, indeed, was now the position of these shipwrecked mariners, and it was difficult for Halcott, Tandy, and James Malone to review it with even forced calmness.
The three men walked up together to the table-land to hold a council, taking no one with them.
The storm had gone down almost as quickly as it had arisen, and sea and sky were blue and beautiful once again.
Said James, as they all sat smoking there,—
“Brother Halcott, my first words are these—and I’m an older man than either of you—We must not despair!”
“We must not despair!” repeated both his shipmates.
But they did not smile, and their voices sounded almost hollow, or as if they came up out of a phonograph.
James laid his hand on his friend’s knee.
“Our prospects are bad, I allow,” he said, “the future looks dark and drear. We are far, far beyond the ordinary track of ships; ships seldom, if ever, come this way, unless driven out of their course by stress of weather. I think, then, brother, that we may dismiss from our minds, as useless, all hope from that direction. But dangers loom ahead that we must not, dare not, try to minimise. We are here with but limited supplies of food and ammunition, and these can hardly last for ever. The nearest land is hundreds and hundreds of miles away, the wild, inhospitable shores of Northern Patagonia. We are but eleven all told, excluding the boys Ransey and Fitz, the dear child, and Janeira—eleven working hands. Could we expect or dare, as a last resource, to reach the far-off land in two open boats? Did we attempt this, we should have to reckon, at the outset, upon opposition from the wild natives of that north island; then on the dangers of the elements during this long, forlorn cruise. Worst of all, if not an-hungered, we might perish from thirst. Tandy, you would go mad were you to see the anxious, fevered face and dry, parched lips of your child upturned to the sky, weak and weary, and praying for the drop of water you could not find to give her.”
“Hush, James, hush!” cried Tandy; “sooner far we should all die where we are.”