or the present, lest we might again be disappointed
of relief. At length upon her getting nearer, I saw distinctly that she
was heading immediately for us, with her light sails filled. I could now
contain myself no longer, and pointed her out to my fellow-sufferers.
They immediately sprang to their feet, again indulging in the most
extravagant demonstrations of joy, weeping, laughing in an idiotic
manner, jumping, stamping upon the deck, tearing their hair, and praying
and cursing by turns. I was so affected by their conduct, as well as
by what I considered a sure prospect of deliverance, that I could not
refrain from joining in with their madness, and gave way to the impulses
of my gratitude and ecstasy by lying and rolling on the deck, clapping
my hands, shouting, and other similar acts, until I was suddenly called
to my recollection, and once more to the extreme human misery and
despair, by perceiving the ship all at once with her stern fully
presented toward us, and steering in a direction nearly opposite to that
in which I had at first perceived her.

It was some time before I could induce my poor companions to believe
that this sad reverse in our prospects had actually taken place. They
replied to all my assertions with a stare and a gesture implying that
they were not to be deceived by such misrepresentations. The conduct of
Augustus most sensibly affected me. In spite of all I could say or do to
the contrary, he persisted in saying that the ship was rapidly nearing
us, and in making preparations to go on board of her. Some seaweed
floating by the brig, he maintained that it was the ship's boat, and
endeavoured to throw himself upon it, howling and shrieking in the most
heartrending manner, when I forcibly restrained him from thus casting
himself into the sea.

Having become in some degree pacified, we continued to watch the ship
until we finally lost sight of her, the weather becoming hazy, with
a light breeze springing up. As soon as she was entirely gone, Parker
turned suddenly toward me with an expression of countenance which made
me shudder. There was about him an air of self-possession which I had
not noticed in him until now, and before he opened his lips my heart
told me what he would say. He proposed, in a few words, that one of us
should die to preserve the existence of the others.

CHAPTER 12

I had for some time past, dwelt upon the prospect of our being reduced
to this last horrible extremi