of well from which to
bale, and in this way at least keep the leak from gaining upon me, even
if I found it impossible to reduce it. For _time_ was what I now
wanted. I had a conviction that the felucca's seams were opening,
through the violent straining of her in the heavy sea and through the
tremendous pressure of the wind upon her sail; and I felt tolerably
confident that, if I could succeed in keeping her afloat until the gale
had blown itself out, all would be well.

But at this point of my meditations it suddenly occurred to me that I
was hungry and thirsty; so I descended the companion ladder and made my
way to the small pantry, in search of something to eat and drink. It
was a small place, scarcely larger than a cupboard, and very imperfectly
lighted by a single bull's-eye let into the deck; but it had one merit,
it was well provided with good wide shelves, upon which everything that
could possibly spoil was stowed; and here I was lucky enough to find an
abundance of food--such as it was--and several bottles of the thin, sour
wine which Dominguez and his crew drank instead of coffee. I ate and
drank there in the pantry, standing up to my knees in water, and when I
had finished, went to work with a bucket and rope to bail the water out
of the lazarette, standing out on deck, on the lee side of the
companion, and drawing the water out of the lazarette as out of a well.
I stuck doggedly to this work throughout the whole afternoon and well on
into the night, until I could bail no longer for very weariness; and
then--having convinced myself that I had succeeded in checking the rise
of the water--I took a final look round to ascertain whether anything
happened to be in sight, but could see nothing, the night being again
dark as pitch, came to the conclusion that it was blowing a trifle less
hard than it had been, and that the felucca would live through the night
even though I should cease to bale; and so descended to the cabin and
again flung myself into my bunk, where I dropped sound asleep as my head
touched the pillow.

When I next returned to consciousness my awakening was brought about
through the agency of water splashing in over the side of my bunk, the
felucca having steadily filled during the period of my sleep until the
cabin was fully three feet deep in water. It was broad day, and oh,
blessed change! the sun was shining brilliantly down through the
skylight, while the wind had evidently dropped to a