, and running as we are directly before it, we shall have
no choice where to land, and shall have to make good our footing on the
dry land as best we can."

We were silent for some time; indeed, we had enough to do to steer the
raft.

"Keep a bright look-out, Ben," cried Boxall. "Do you see anything of
the land?"

"No, sir," answered Ben, somewhat surprised; for he supposed, as I had
done, that we were still a long way off. "I don't expect to see it for
the next three or four hours."

"We may reach it sooner than you fancy," said Boxall.

"Very glad to hear that, sir," answered Ben; "for though I am very well
satisfied with this craft of ours, I would sooner feel my feet on dry
land than aboard of her, if it should come on to blow much harder than
it does now."

I suspect we all felt as Ben did. The sea was fast rising, and as the
foaming crests of the tumbling waves came hissing over the raft, we had
to hold on tightly to avoid being carried away. But our chief anxiety
was about our mast. Should that give way, the raft would be left
tossing helplessly amid the seas, and in all probability be washed off.
We had, however, stayed it up securely, and we could only hope that it
would hold.

I now proposed taking another reef in the sail.

"No, we will let it stand," said Boxall; "we shall only run a greater
risk than we do now of being pooped, should we shorten sail, and if the
wind does not increase we shall easily carry it; indeed, by the look of
the sky, I have hopes that the weather will not grow worse,--and perhaps
by the morning we shall have it calm again."

"We may then congratulate ourselves on having had the strong breeze
which is sending us along so famously," observed Halliday.

"We shall have reason to be thankful to Him who has caused the westerly
wind to blow," answered Boxall. "It might have come from the eastward,
and we should have been driven still further off the coast--when, if not
swamped, we would in all probability die of starvation, did we fail to
fall in with a passing vessel."

Fully two hours passed by, and still Ben's sharp eyes could not detect
the land. We had been steering by the stars, and though they had for
some time been obscured, we had reason to believe that the wind had not
changed, and therefore, being directly before it, that we had kept the
same course.

I asked Boxall how fast he thought we were going through the water.

"Considering the breeze we have got,