ders, and added, looking at Fairford, 'Pity of him he
should have this fault; for without it, he would have been as clever a
fellow as ever trod a plank with ox leather.'

'And what are we to do now?' said Fairford.

'Stand off and on, to be sure, till we see the signal, and then obey
orders.'

So saying, the old man turned to his duty, and left the passenger to
amuse himself with his own meditations. Presently afterward a light
column of smoke was seen rising from the little headland.

'I can tell you what we are to do now, master,' said the sailor. 'We'll
stand out to sea, and then run in again with the evening tide, and
make Skinburness; or, if there's not light, we can run into the
Wampool river, and put you ashore about Kirkbride or Leaths, with the
long-boat.'

Fairford, unwell before, felt this destination condemned him to an agony
of many hours, which his disordered stomach and aching head were ill
able to endure. There was no remedy, however, but patience, and the
recollection that he was suffering in the cause of friendship. As the
sun rose high, he became worse; his sense of smell appeared to acquire
a morbid degree of acuteness, for the mere purpose of inhaling and
distinguishing all the various odours with which he was surrounded, from
that of pitch to all the complicated smells of the hold. His heart, too,
throbbed under the heat, and he felt as if in full progress towards a
high fever.

The seamen, who were civil and attentive considering their calling,
observed his distress, and one contrived to make an awning out of an
old sail, while another compounded some lemonade, the only liquor which
their passenger could be prevailed upon to touch. After drinking it off,
he obtained, but could not be said to enjoy, a few hours of troubled
slumber.

CHAPTER XV

NARRATIVE OF ALAN FAIRFORD, CONTINUED

Alan Fairford's spirit was more ready to encounter labour than his frame
was adequate to support it. In spite of his exertions, when he awoke,
after five or six hours' slumber, he found that he was so much disabled
by dizziness in his head and pains in his limbs, that he could not raise
himself without assistance. He heard with some pleasure that they were
now running right for the Wampool river, and that he would be put on
shore in a very short time. The vessel accordingly lay to, and presently
showed a weft in her ensign, which was hastily answered by signals from
on shore. Men and horses were seen