"Will you hold on for a couple of hours longer, fellows?" persisted Howe.
"I will hold on till the boatswain calls all hands, and not an instant longer," replied Herman. "My tongue feels as though it were cracking with thirst."
Howe rushed out of the room to find Little, who was the man of expedients for the runaways. He found him in an adjoining room, and stated the case to him. The little villain was as uncomfortable and unhappy as the rest of the mutineers, and, to the surprise of Howe, counselled yielding rather than suffering any longer.
"I didn't think that of you, Little," sneered Howe.
"Didn't you? Well, it's only a question as to who can stand it the longest on a diet of salt horse without water," replied Little. "I can hold out as long as any fellow; but we shall not make anything by it. If we could, I would stick."
"Let us do something, at least, to make a sensation before we give in. I don't like the idea of being conquered just in this way."
"What can we do?"
"Let us set the ship afire, or bore holes in the bottom," whispered Howe.
"Of course, you don't mean anything of that sort," added Little, with a grim smile.
"I would rather do it than be whipped out in this manner. I never felt so cheap and mean in my life," continued Howe, kicking the front of the berth, and pounding with his fist to indicate the intensity of his wrath.