over together, therefore, we ultimately decided
to let everything stand just as it was until we could see a little more
clearly what was before us.

In this manner, then, the first two days passed, the ship jogging along
to the southward at the rate of about one hundred to a hundred and
twenty miles in the twenty-four hours, the weather continuing fine and,
on the whole, settled, enabling us all to get an ample sufficiency of
rest while attending to the duties which each day brought with it.

On the third night, dating from the beginning of our adventure, it fell
to me to take the middle watch; and when I went on deck at midnight I
still found the weather everything that could be desired, except that
the wind was perceptibly lighter than it had been when I turned in some
four hours earlier. This change, Saunders informed me, had been in
progress during almost the whole of his watch; but I did not think--nor
did he--that it portended any very important alteration in the weather,
for the sky was perfectly clear, and the stars shone brilliantly. The
utmost that I anticipated was a possible shift of wind; which, however,
would be no great matter, since it was just as likely to be in our
favour as against us. We stood for a few minutes discussing
probabilities, and then Saunders bade me good night and went below.

For nearly two hours I stood at the wheel, holding the ship to her
course with ever-increasing difficulty; for the wind still continued to
drop until we scarcely had steerage-way. Then, with a final sigh the
breeze died away altogether, the topsails hung limp and dew-saturated
from the yards, the fore topmast staysail sheet drooped amidships, and
the _Mercury_ swung broadside-on to the scarcely perceptible swell.

Abandoning the now useless wheel, I walked forward to the skylight--in
which the cabin lamp, turned low, burned dimly--and had a look at the
barometer. It was about a tenth lower than when I had last looked at
it, two hours earlier, and that might possibly mean an impending change
of weather; but if so, the heavens showed no sign of it thus far, for
the sky was still clear as crystal, the stars beamed down with
undiminished radiance out of the immeasurable depths of the blue-black
vault overhead, and the swell was perceptibly flattening. Then I looked
at the clock, which, as is usual at sea, was set every day by the sun.
It wanted five minutes to two; I therefore had still two hours of my
watch t