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Page 21
The officers (with the exception of Wardour, who stood apart in
sullen silence) all agreed, so far.
The captain went on.
"It is therefore urgently necessary that we should make another,
and probably a last, effort to extricate ourselves. The winter is
not far off, game is getting scarcer and scarcer, our stock of
provisions is running low, and the sick--especially, I am sorry
to say, the sick in the _Wanderer_'s hut--are increasing in
number day by day. We must look to our own lives, and to the
lives of those who are dependent on us; and we have no time to
lose."
The officers echoed the words cheerfully.
"Right! right! No time to lose."
Captain Helding resumed:
"The plan proposed is, that a detachment of the able-bodied
officers and men among us should set forth this very day, and
make another effort to reach the nearest inhabited settlements,
from which help and provisions may be dispatched to those who
remain here. The new direction to be taken, and the various
precautions to be adopted, are all drawn out ready. The only
question now before us is, Who is to stop here, and who is to
undertake the journey?"
The officers answered the question with one accord--"Volunteers!"
The men echoed their officers. "Ay, ay, volunteers."
Wardour still preserved his sullen silence. Crayford noticed him.
standing apart from the rest, and appealed to him personally.
"Do you say nothing?" he asked.
"Nothing," Wardour answered. "Go or stay, it's all one to me."
"I hope you don't really mean that?" said Crayford.
"I do."
"I am sorry to hear it, Wardour."
Captain Helding answered the general suggestion in favor of
volunteering by a question which instantly checked the rising
enthusiasm of the meeting.
"Well," he said, "suppose we say volunteers. Who volunteers to
stop in the huts?"
There was a dead silence. The officers and men looked at each
other confusedly. The captain continued:
"You see we can't settle it by volunteering. You all want to go.
Every man among us who has the use of his limbs naturally wants
to go. But what is to become of those who have not got the use of
their limbs? Some of us must stay here, and take care of the
sick."
Everybody admitted that this was true.
"So we get back again," said the captain, "to the old
question--Who among the able-bodied is to go? and who is to stay?
Captain Ebsworth says, and I say, let chance decide it. Here are
dice. The numbers run as high as twelve--double sixes. All who
throw under six, stay; all who throw over six, go. Officers of
the _Wanderer_ and the _Sea-mew_, do you agree to that way of
meeting the difficulty?"
All the officers agreed, with the one exception of Wardour, who
still kept silence.
"Men of the _Wanderer_ and _Sea-mew_, your officers agree to cast
lots. Do you agree too?"
The men agreed without a dissentient voice. Crayford handed the
box and the dice to Captain Helding.
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