Page:Paine--Lost ships and lonely seas.djvu/171

Rh the men relented and listened to the captain's appeal. Back they went, and dragged Pat along, damning him bitterly and swearing to kill him on the spot if he misbehaved again.

After three days the torments of thirst were severe, and the heat blistered their souls. In the wreck of the Oswego there was water in barrels, plenty of it, and this was all that the fevered minds of most of the sufferers could think of. Captain Paddock urged them to keep on with him to the eastward a few days longer toward Mogador, but they were ready to turn and struggle back to the ship, fifty miles, just to get enough water to drink. It mattered not to them that they were throwing away the hope of survival.

The captain was made of sterner stuff, and so they amiably agreed to part company. A black sailor, Jack, stepped forward and said with simple fidelity:

"Master, if you go on, I go, too."

The other negro of the crew grinned at his comrade and exclaimed:

"If you go, Jack, I reckon I 's obliged to stand by."

The scapegrace Pat, regarding the captain as his friend and protector, also elected to stay with him.

So Captain Judah Paddock was left to toil on-