pt across the deck, under cover of the
bulwarks, on all fours--and slipped into the sea on the port side.
Lots of things were floating about. I took the first thing I came to--a
hen-coop--and swam away with it about a couple of hundred yards, keeping
the yacht between me and the boat. Having got that distance, I was
seized with a shivering fit, and I stopped (fearing the cramp next) to
take a pull at my flask. When I had closed the flask again, I turned
for a moment to look back, and saw the yacht in the act of sinking. In a
minute more there was nothing between me and the boat but the pieces of
wreck that had been purposely thrown out to float. The moon was shining;
and, if they had had a glass in the boat, I believe they might have seen
my head, though I carefully kept the hen-coop between me and them.

"As it was, they laid on their oars; and I heard loud voices among them
disputing. After what seemed an age to me, I discovered what the dispute
was about. The boat's head was suddenly turned my way. Some cleverer
scoundrel than the rest (the sailing-master, I dare say) had evidently
persuaded them to row back over the place where the yacht had gone down,
and make quite sure that I had gone down with her.

"They were more than half-way across the distance that separated us, and
I had given myself up for lost, when I heard a cry from one of them, and
saw the boat's progress suddenly checked. In a minute or two more the
boat's head was turned again; and they rowed straight away from me like
men rowing for their lives.

"I looked on one side toward the land, and saw nothing. I looked on the
other toward the sea, and discovered what the boat's crew had discovered
before me--a sail in the distance, growing steadily brighter and bigger
in the moonlight the longer I looked at it. In a quarter of an hour more
the vessel was within hail of me, and the crew had got me on board.

"They were all foreigners, and they quite deafened me by their jabber.
I tried signs, but before I could make them understand me I was seized
with another shivering fit, and was carried below. The vessel held on
her course, I have no doubt, but I was in no condition to know anything
about it. Before morning I was in a fever; and from that time I can
remember nothing clearly till I came to my senses at this place, and
found myself under the care of a Hungarian merchant, the consignee (as
they call it) of the coasting vessel that had picked me up. He spe