At any rate, the water is not bad, that's a comfort." "No thanks to them," Jack growled.

"If there had been any bad water in the neighborhood they would have given it to us." For two weeks the sufferings of the prisoners continued.

Their captors avoided towns where the authorities would probably at once have taken the prisoners out of their hands.

No one would have recognized the two captives as the midshipmen of the Perseus; their clothes were in rags--torn to pieces by the thrusts of the sharp pointed bamboos, to which they had daily been subjected--the bad food, the cramped position, and the misery which they suffered had worn both lads to skeletons; their hair was matted with filth, their faces begrimed with dirt.

Percy was so weak that he felt he could not stand.