ere was a still more serious matter
demanding my attention, namely, the getting rid of the water in the
hold. To this task, accordingly, I addressed myself immediately after
breakfast, first taking the precaution to most carefully sound the well.
The result of this preliminary operation was so far reassuring that I
found a depth of just three feet six inches of water, the merest trifle
more than the rod had showed forty-eight hours before, thus
demonstrating that the hull was once more practically as tight as a
bottle. Thus encouraged, I got to work at the pump, working steadily
and systematically, exerting my strength to the best advantage, and
sparing my hands as far as possible by enwrapping the handle first in
canvas and then in a strip of a blanket taken from one of the forecastle
bunks. It was terribly back-breaking work--this steady toil at the
pumps, and when midday arrived and I knocked off to get a meridian
altitude of the sun, wherefrom to compute our latitude, I was pretty
well exhausted; but I had my reward in the discovery that I had reduced
the depth of water in the hold by nearly eight inches--thus showing
that, after all, the quantity of water was not nearly so formidable as
it had at first seemed, existing indeed only in the more or less
inconsiderable spaces not occupied by the cargo. After tiffin I again
went to work, and toiled steadily on until sunset, by which time I had
reduced the depth by a further six inches, at the same time fatiguing
myself to the point of exhaustion.

And all through this day of toil I had been maintaining a most anxious
watch upon the weather, without detecting any disquieting sign whatever;
it is true that the wind strengthened somewhat--sufficiently, in fact,
to bring the brig's speed up to close upon five knots, but this was the
reverse of alarming, especially as the sky remained clear. But when at
length we sat down to dinner that evening, I found that the mercury
still manifested a disposition to sink. Apart, however, from this
behaviour on the part of the barometer, every omen was so reassuring
that when Miss Onslow bade me goodnight, and retired to her cabin, I
unhesitatingly settled myself again upon the wheel grating for the
night, and soon fell into the deep sleep of healthy fatigue.

I was awakened some time during the night--I had no idea whatever of the
hour--by the loud rustling of canvas; and upon starting to my feet I
found that the wind had strength