Page:Ballantyne--The Battery and the Boiler.djvu/164

 Sam stopped as if suddenly paralysed. Then, laying hold of Robin, held him back. He felt, as he looked at the dark heaving sea and the now-distant raft, that it was not possible for him and Slagg to save both their injured and their helpless comrade.

"Too late!" he said in a voice of despair, as he sat down and for a moment covered his face with his hands. Slagg looked at him with a bewildered rather than a despairing expression.

"So, we 'll have to sink together since we can't swim together," he said at last, with a touch of reckless vexation, as he gazed at the naturally stupid and by that time imbecile face of his friend Stumps.

"Come, only cowards give way to despair," cried Sam, starting up. "We have one chance yet, God be praised, but let 's work with a will, boys, for the time is short."