re quite cheerful and courageous; indeed, I was amazed to see how
quickly and thoroughly they all adapted themselves to circumstances,
although, in the case of Mrs Vansittart and her daughter at least, this
was their first experience of anything in the nature of real hardship.

We breakfasted early that morning, all of us declaring ourselves to be
more than ready for the meal. Then we experienced a most unpleasant
shock, for upon serving out the first allowance of water for the day, we
discovered that our stock had suffered a further mysterious depletion
during the night, which, upon investigation, proved to be due to a leaky
breaker. The leak was not a very serious one, certainly, and the staves
seemed to be taking up a bit and the leak growing less; still, we had
lost about three pints, which was half a pint apiece, and it was not
difficult to picture conditions under which this might make all the
difference to us between life and death.

The day passed like the night, uneventfully. The breeze held steady,
and we continued to blow along northward, Mrs Vansittart and her
daughter taking spell and spell at the steering oar while I endeavoured
to make up my arrears of sleep. Of course a sharp look-out was
maintained, in the hope that either a sail or land might be sighted; but
although the air was crystal-clear the horizon remained bare throughout
its entire circle. Toward nightfall the wind manifested a tendency to
drop, and shortly after midnight it fell dead, so that when Julius
aroused me at two o'clock in the morning I found the boat heaving gently
upon an oil-smooth swell.

This calm, if it should last for any length of time, would be nothing
short of a disaster. It was of vital importance that we should find
either a ship or a shore capable of providing us with sustenance within
the next four or five days, or we should all be subjected to the horrors
of starvation. I positively dreaded to think of what might be the
effect of this upon the women; therefore, that we might not lie there
absolutely helpless, I started to scull the boat with the steering oar.
But she was heavy for this style of propulsion, and I estimated that our
progress did not amount to more than three-quarters of a mile per hour.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

PERISHING OF HUNGER AND THIRST.

It was a night of great discomfort, a storm of wind and rain arising,
and the day which followed was little if any better, the same weather
conditions p