nted for their loss.

"Then we opened our little stock of provisions--consisting mostly of
cabin biscuit--that we had wrapped up in a bit of tarpaulin, intending
to put a bit of food into ourselves and so get a little strength and
encouragement. But when we came to open the bundle we found it full of
salt water--and no wonder, seeing what clean breaches the sea had been
making over us all night--so that our bread was just reduced to pulp,
and no more fit to eat than if it was so much putty. And our water was
pretty nearly as bad; the sea had got at it, too, and made it that
brackish that it tasted more like physic than water. However, we took a
drink all round, and tried to persuade one another that it wouldn't be
so very long before something would come along and pick us up.

"The sea took a long time to quiet down; but by sunset it had smoothened
so far that it only just kept the raft awash and the water up to our
waists as we sat; so, as we had by this time got pretty well used to
being wet through, we were feeling fairly comfortable, or should have
been if only we had had a morsel of something to stay our hunger, and a
drain of sweet water to quench our thirst--for we soon found that the
more water we drank out of our breaker, the thirstier we grew.

"That night the steward went crazy, and started singing. First of all
he began with the sort of songs that a sailor-man sings on the
forecastle during the second dog-watch on a fine night; and from that he
branched off into hymns. Then he fancied that he was at home once more,
talking to his wife and the chicks, and it made my heart fairly bleed to
listen to him. Then, after he had been yarning away in that style for
more than an hour, he quieted down, and I thought he was getting better.
But when daylight broke he was gone--slipped quietly overboard during
the night, I reckoned.

"The next day was a terrible one. Our sufferings from hunger and thirst
were awful; and about midday one of the men--an A.B. named Tom Bridges--
went raving mad, and swore that he didn't intend to starve any more;
said that one of us must die for the good of the rest; and presently set
upon me, saying that I was in better condition than any of the rest, and
that therefore I was the proper one to be sacrificed. He was a big,
powerful man, and proved a match for the other five of us. We must have
fought for a good twenty minutes, I should think, when he suddenly took
hold of me round