Angel Island

"I'm going off for a tramp." Pete was sunken as well as ashen; he looked

dead. "Do you suppose they'll hurt themselves pulling against those

ropes?" he asked tonelessly.

"Let them struggle for a while," Ralph advised. Like the rest of them,

Ralph was exhausted-looking and pale. But at intervals he swaggered and

glowed. With his strange, new air of triumph and his white teeth

glittering through his dark mustache, he was more than ever like some

huge predatory cat. "Serves them right! They've taken it out of us for

three months."

Billy did not speak, but he swayed as he followed Frank. He fell on his

bed when they reached the camp. He lay there all night motionless,

staring at the ceiling.

There was a tiny spot of blood on one hand.