efore any of our crew could get aboard--so
you told me just before you went mad."

"Oh! I remember now! I recollect it all. Go on."

"Fourthly, as to where we are going, I don't know. Our compass was
smashed to pieces in the fight, and I've been running for the last three
weeks right before the wind. So now you know all, and as you've
finished your soup I'll go and get you a lump of boiled junk."

"Don't," said I, rising and shaking myself. "I've dined. I feel quite
strong. I don't feel a bit as if I had been ill. Hallo! what land is
that?"

Jack started and gazed at it with surprise. He had evidently not known
that we were in the neighbourhood of land. A dense fog-bank had
concealed it from us. Now that it cleared away it revealed to our gaze
a stretch of yellow sand, backed by the lofty blue hills of the
interior, and from the palm-trees that I could make out distinctly I
judged that we must have been making for the tropical regions during the
last three weeks.

Yet here again mystery surrounded me. How was it possible that we
should have reached the tropics in so short a time? While I was
puzzling over this question, the greatest mystery of all occurred to us.
If I were not conscientiously relating events exactly as they occurred,
I should expect my readers to doubt my veracity here.

As we were sailing smoothly along, our ship, without any apparent cause,
began to sink. She went down gradually, but quickly--inch by inch--
until the water was on a level with the decks. We struck no rock! we
did not cease to advance towards the shore! I fancied that we must
certainly have sprung a leak; but there had been no sound of a plank
starting, and there was no noise of water rushing into the hold. I
could not imagine what had occurred, but I had not much time for
thought. We could do nothing to avert the catastrophe. It occurred so
suddenly that we were both rendered mute and helpless. We stood gazing
at the water as it crept over the deck without making the slightest
effort to save ourselves.

At length the water reached the hatchway and poured in a roaring
cataract into the hold. The vessel filled, gave a heavy lurch to port,
a species of tremor passed through her frame as if she was a living
thing and knew that her hour had come, then she went down in a
whirlpool, leaving Jack and me struggling in the sea.

We were both good swimmers, so that we did not experience much alarm,
especially when