when they saw daddy driving up. My little Adar--'

The captain stopped sharply.

'Well, keep it up!' said the clerk.

'The damned thing is, I don't know if they ain't starving!'
cried the captain.

'They can't be worse off than we are, and that's one comfort,'
returned the clerk. 'I defy the devil to make me worse off.'

It seemed as if the devil heard him. The light of the moon had
been some time cut off and they had talked in darkness. Now
there was heard a roar, which drew impetuously nearer; the face
of the lagoon was seen to whiten; and before they had staggered
to their feet, a squall burst in rain upon the outcasts. The rage
and volume of that avalanche one must have lived in the tropics
to conceive; a man panted in its assault, as he might pant under
a shower-bath; and the world seemed whelmed in night and water.

They fled, groping for their usual shelter--it might be almost
called their home--in the old calaboose; came drenched into its
empty chambers; and lay down, three sops of humanity on the
cold coral floors, and presently, when the squall was overpast,
the others could hear in the darkness the chattering of the
clerk's teeth.

'I say, you fellows,' he walled, 'for God's sake, lie up and try
to warm me. I'm blymed if I don't think I'll die else!'