e suddenness of a plank falling to the
ground. The immense mass of clouds became disorganised. A strip of clear
sky appeared between them. Gilliatt was astonished: it was broad
daylight.

The tempest had lasted nearly twenty hours.

The wind which had brought the storm carried it away. A dark pile was
diffused over the horizon, the broken clouds were flying in confusion
across the sky. From one end to the other of the line there was a
movement of retreat: a long muttering was heard, gradually decreasing, a
few last drops of rain fell, and all those dark masses charged with
thunder, departed like a terrible multitude of chariots.

Suddenly the wide expanse of sky became blue.

Gilliatt perceived that he was wearied. Sleep swoops down upon the
exhausted frame like a bird upon its prey. He drooped and sank upon the
deck of the bark without choosing his position, and there slept.
Stretched at length and inert, he remained thus for some hours, scarcely
distinguishable from the beams and joists among which he lay.

BOOK IV

PITFALLS IN THE WAY

I

HE WHO IS HUNGRY IS NOT ALONE

When he awakened he was hungry.

The sea was growing calmer. But there was still a heavy swell, which
made his departure, for the present at least, impossible. The day, too,
was far advanced. For the sloop with its burden to get to Guernsey
before midnight, it was necessary to start in the morning.

Although pressed by hunger, Gilliatt began by stripping himself, the
only means of getting warmth. His clothing was saturated by the storm,
but the rain had washed out the sea-water, which rendered it possible to
dry them.

He kept nothing on but his trousers, which he turned up nearly to the
knees.

His overcoat, jacket, overalls, and sheepskin he spread out and fixed
with large round stones here and there.

Then he thought of eating.

He had recourse to his knife, which he was careful to sharpen, and to
keep always in good condition; and he detached from the rocks a few
limpets, similar in kind to the _clonisses_ of the Mediterranean. It is
well known that these are eaten raw: but after so many labours, so
various and so rude, the pittance was meagre. His biscuit was gone; but
of water he had now abundance.

He took advantage of the receding tide to wander among the rocks in
search of crayfish. There was extent enough of rock to hope for a
successful search.

But he had not reflected that he could do nothing with thes