CHAPTER XVI.
ONLY A FEW MORE HOURS.
What effect this news has upon me, and what emotion it awakens within my soul! The end, I feel, is at hand.

May it be such as civilization and humanity are entitled to.
Up to the present I have indited my notes day by day.

Henceforward it is imperative that I should inscribe them hour by hour, minute by minute.

Who knows but what Thomas Roch's last secret may be revealed to me and that I shall have time to commit it to paper! Should I die during the attack God grant that the account of the five months I have passed in Back Cup may be found upon my body! At first Ker Karraje, Engineer Serko, Captain Spade, and several of their companions took up position on the exterior base of the island.
What would I not give to be able follow to them, and in the friendly shelter of a rook watch the on-coming warships! An hour later they return after having left a score of men to keep watch.

As the days at this season of the year are very short there is nothing to fear before the morrow.