Well, at each place, what is
it? Nothing new. Only one sailor-man missing: got
drunk, or got drowned, or got left--the proper sailor's
end."
Something bitter in the thought and in the speaker's
tones struck me hard. "Here is one that has got left!"
I cried, getting sharply to my feet, for we had been
some time seated. "I wish it were the other. I don't-
-don't relish going home to Jim with this!"
"See here," said Nares, with ready tact, "I must be
getting aboard. Johnson's in the brig annexing
chandlery and canvas, and there's some things in the
NORAH that want fixing against we go to sea. Would
you like to be left here in the chicken-ranch? I'll
send for you to supper."
I embraced the proposal with delight. Solitude, in my
frame of mind, was not too dearly purchased at the risk
of sunstroke or sand-blindness; and soon I was alone on
the ill-omened islet. I should find it hard to tell of
what I thought--of Jim, of Mamie, of our lost fortune,
of my lost hopes, of the doom before me: to turn to at
some mechanical occupation in some subaltern rank, and
to toil there, unremarked and unamused, until the hour
of the last deliverance.
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