Part 2 (1/2)
”Vache!”
They spat the insults of the prison while Perroquet knotted his great fist over the other, who crouched away catlike, his mobile mouth twisted to a snarl Dubosc stood aside in watchful calculation until against the angry red sunrise in which they floated there flashed the naked red gleah Fenayrou, put up that knife”
”The dog kicked me!”
”You were at fault,” said Dubosc sternly ”Perroquet!”
”Are we all to die that he may sleep?” stormed The Parrot
”The harh already We ies Look about”
They looked and saw the far, round horizon and the e shadows that slipped slowly before the else The land had sunk away froht--so the islands had drawn the ”Good God, how lonely it is!” breathed Fenayrou in a hush
No more was said They dropped their quarrel Silently they shared their rations as before,with their few drops of water, and sat down to pit thele that each could feel was co--a sort of tacit test of endurance
A calm had fallen, as it does between trades in this flawed belt, an absolute calhted The sea showed no faintest crinkle, only theheave and fall in polished undulations on which the lances of the sun broke and drove in under their eyelids as white-hot splinters; a savage sun that kindled upon thelass, that sucked theto the shelter of their , to shrivel anew The water, the world of water, seemed sleek and thick as oil They ca smell of it, and when the doctor made them dip theish, sli along the edge of the raft they all faced inboard, and there sat the black Canaque He did not join thelance at them He sat hunkered on his heels in the way of the native, with ar his knees He stayed in his place at the stern,out into vacancy Whenever they raised their eyes they saw hi to see
”Here is one who appears to enjoy hi so myself,” said Fenayrou
”The animal!” rumbled Perroquet
They observed hiht of hi of envy
”He does not see on in his brain? What does he dream of there? One would say he despises us”
”The beast!”
”Perhaps he is waiting for us to die,” suggested Fenayrou with a harsh chuckle ”Perhaps he is waiting for the reward He would not starve on the way home, at least And he could deliver us--piecemeal”
They studied hi?”
”I have been wondering,” said Dubosc ”It her--his nerves”
”Yet we have had water and he none”
”But look at his skin, fresh and moist”
”And his belly, fat as a football!”
The Parrot hauled himself aboard
”Don't tell e excitement ”Is there any way he could steal our supplies?”