DECEMBER 23 to 30.—After the storm the wind settled back into its old quarter, blowing pretty briskly from the northeast. As the breeze was all in our favor it was important to make the most of it, and after Dowlas had carefully readjusted the mast, the sail was once more hoisted², and we were carried along at the rate of two or two and a half knots an hour. A new rudder, formed of a spar and a good-sized plank³, has been fitted in the place of the one we lost, but with the wind in its present quarter it is in little requisition. The platform of the raft has been repaired, the disjointed planks⁴ have been closed by means of ropes and wedges, and that portion of the parapet that was washed away has been replaced, so that we are no longer wetted by the waves. In fact, nothing has been left undone⁵ to insure the solidity of our raft, and to render it capable of resisting the wear and tear of the wind and waves. But the dangers of wind and waves are not those which we have most to dread⁶.  
Together with the unclouded sky came a return of the tropical heat, which during the preceding days had caused us such serious inconvenience; fortunately on the 23d the excessive warmth was somewhat tempered by the breeze, and as the tent was once again put up, we were able to find shelter under it by turns.
 
But the want of food was beginning to tell upon us sadly, and our sunken cheeks and wasted forms were visible tokens of what we were enduring. With most of us hunger seemed to attack the entire nervous system, and the constriction⁷ of the stomach produced an acute sensation of pain. A narcotic⁸, such as opium⁹ or tobacco, might have availed to soothe¹⁰, if not to cure, the gnawing¹¹ agony; but of sedatives¹² we had none, so the pain must be endured.
 
One alone there was among us who did not feel the pangs¹³ of hunger. Lieutenant¹⁴ Walter seemed as it were to feed upon the fever that raged within him; but then he was the victim of the most torturing thirst. Miss Herbey, besides reserving for him a portion of her own insufficient¹⁵ allowance, obtained from the captain a small extra supply of water with which every quarter of an hour she moistened the parched¹⁶ lips of the young man, who, almost too weak to speak, could only express his thanks by a grateful smile. Poor fellow! all our care cannot avail to save him now; he is doomed¹⁷, most surely doomed to die.
 
On the 23d he seemed to be conscious of his condition, for he made a sign to me to sit down by his side, and then summoning up all his strength to speak, he asked me in a few broken words how long I thought he had to live?
 
Slight as my hesitation¹⁸ was, Walter noticed it immediately.
 
"The truth," he said; "tell me the plain truth."
 
"My dear fellow, I am not a doctor, you know," I began, "and I can scarcely judge—"
 
"Never mind," he interrupted, "tell me just what you think."
 
I looked at him attentively¹⁹ for some moments, then laid my ear against his chest. In the last few days his malady²⁰ had made fearfully rapid strides, and it was only too evident that one lung had already ceased to act, while the other was scarcely capable of performing the work of respiration²¹. The young man was now suffering from the fever which is the sure symptom of the approaching end in all tuberculous complaints.
 
The lieutenant kept his eye

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