had now undergone a complete change for the
better. My larder was replenished with store enough to last me for ten
days, at the least; for I made a sort of resolution that my future
ration should be one rat per diem. In ten days what might I not effect?
Surely I should be able to accomplish the great feat which I ought to
have attempted at the first, but which, as ill fortune would have it, I
had hitherto considered impossible--that is, to cut my way to the deck.

A rat a day, reflected I, will not only keep me alive, but restore some
of my spent strength; and labouring constantly for ten days, I should be
almost certain to reach the topmost tier of the cargo. Perhaps in less
time? If less, all the better; but certainly in ten days I might get
through them all, even though there should be ten tiers of boxes between
me and the upper deck.

Such were the new hopes with which the successful rat-catching had
inspired me, and my mind was restored to a state of confidence and
equanimity that had long been stranger to it.

I had one apprehension that still slightly troubled me, and that was
about getting through the cask. It was not the fear of the time it
might take, for I no longer believed that I should be pinched for time;
but I was still in dread lest the fumes of the brandy (which inside the
cask were as strong as ever) might again overcome my senses, despite all
my resolution to guard against a too long exposure to them. Even when I
had entered the cask on the second occasion, it was as much as I could
do to drag myself out of it again.

I resolved, however, to steel myself against the seductions of the
potent spirit that dwelt within the great barrel, and retreat before I
felt its influence too strong to be resisted.

Notwithstanding that I was now more confident as regarded time, I had no
thought of wasting it in idleness; and as soon as my dinner was washed
down by a copious libation from the water-butt, I possessed myself once
more of my knife, and proceeded towards the empty cask, to take a new
spell at enlarging the bung-hole.

Ha! the cask was not empty. It was full of cloth. In the excitement of
trapping the "vermin," I had forgotten the circumstance of my having
placed the cloth within the empty barrel.

Of course, thought I, I must remove it again, in order to make room for
my work; and laying aside the knife, I commenced pulling out the pieces.

While thus engaged, a new reflection arose, and