JANUARY 18.—After this excitement I awaited the approach of day with a strange anxiety. My conscience told me that Hobart had the right to denounce me in the presence of all my fellow-passengers; yet my alarm was vain. The idea of my proceedings¹ being exposed by him was quite absurd; in a moment he would himself be murdered without pity by the crew, if it should be revealed that, unknown to them, he had been living on some private store which, by clandestine² cunning, he had reserved. But, in spite of my anxiety, I had a longing³ for day to come.  
The bit of food that I had thus stolen was very small; but small as it was it had alleviated⁵ my hunger; and I was now tortured with remorse⁶, because I had not shared the meager⁷ morsel⁸ with my fellow-sufferers. Miss Herbey, Andre, his father, all had been forgotten, and from the bottom of my heart I repented⁹ of my cruel selfishness.
 
Meantime the moon rose high in the heavens, and the first streaks¹⁰ of dawn appeared. There is no twilight¹¹ in these low latitudes¹², and the full daylight came well nigh at once. I had not closed my eyes since my encounter with the steward¹³, and ever since the first blush of day I had labored¹⁴ under the impression that I could see some unusual dark mass half way up the mast. But although it again and again caught my eye, it hardly roused my curiosity, and I did not rise from the bundle of sails on which I was lying to ascertain¹⁵ what it really was. But no sooner did the rays of the sun fall upon it than I saw at once that it was the body of a man, attached to a rope, and swinging to and fro with the motion of the raft.
 
A horrible presentiment¹⁶ carried me to the foot of the mast, and, just as I had guessed, Hobart had hanged himself. I could not for a moment doubt that it was I myself that had impelled¹⁷ him to the suicide. A cry of horror had scarcely escaped my lips, when my fellow-passengers were at my side, and the rope was cut. Then came the sailors. And what was it that made the group gather so eagerly around the body? Was it a humane¹⁸ desire to see whether any sparks of life remained? No, indeed; the corpse¹⁹ was cold, and the limbs were rigid²⁰; there was no chance that animation²¹ should be restored. What then was it that kept them lingering so close around? It was only too apparent what they were about to do.
 
But I did not, could not, look. I refused to take part in the horrible repast that was proposed. Neither would Miss Herbey, Andre, nor his father, consent to

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