ngth into the effort, he kicked the
craft, overturning it keel upwards.

Both men were for the moment under water; and Lantejas, on coming to the
surface, felt himself violently grasped by the garments. He fancied it
was one of the sharks that had seized hold of him; but the voice of
Costal close to his ear once more reassured him.

"Do not fear: I am with you," said the Indian, dragging him through the
water towards the capsized canoe, which was now floating wrong side up.

The efforts of the Indian, joined to those which Lantejas mechanically
made for himself, enabled the latter to get astride the keel of the
canoe; where Costal, after swimming a few strokes through the water,
mounted also.

"Another minute," said the Indian, "and the old tub would have gone to
the bottom. Now she may keep afloat till the whale-boats get up--that
is, if the storm don't come down before then."

Lantejas cast a despairing glance towards the distant ocean, which,
lashed by the wind, had already commenced under its mantle of foam. The
sight drew from him a fresh invocation to the saints, with an improvised
but earnest prayer for his own safety.

"_Carrambo_!" cried the pagan Costal, "keep a firm seat, and don't trust
too much to your gods. If you let yourself be washed off, you'll find
they won't do much for you. Stay! you've nothing to hold on by! let me
make a catch for you."

Saying this, Costal bent towards his companion; and with the blade of
his knife commenced opening a hole in the keel of the canoe. In the
worm-eaten wood this might be easily effected; and, working with all the
_sang-froid_ of a wood-carver, in a few seconds Costal succeeded in
making an aperture large enough to admit the hand. Through this
Lantejas thrust his fingers; and, clutching firmly underneath, was now
in a condition to maintain his seat against the waves that were
threatening every moment to roll over the spot.

Costal, having thus secured his companion, and provided for his own
safety in a similar fashion, now commenced peering through the darkness
in hopes of seeing the barges.

In this he was disappointed. Though the lightning now flashed at
shorter intervals, its gleams revealed only the dark and scowling water,
the isle sleeping in sullen gloom, and farther off the frowning mass of
the fortress-crowned cliff.

Notwithstanding that the castaways now shouted at the highest pitch of
their voices, there was no response from the whale-