nd four men, while I, who had been on deck
almost continuously for thirty hours, turned in and, with a mind
intensely relieved by the acquisition of so much valuable help, slept
like a log until seven o'clock the next morning.

I awoke of my own accord, and had no sooner opened my eyes than I knew,
without any need of telling, exactly how we were situated. The ship was
rolling, with a long, steady, even swing, from side to side, with an
occasional heave and settlement of her quarter as the swell took her;
the canvas was alternately flapping out with rifle-like reports, and
thundering against her masts as she rolled; the bulkheads were creaking
and groaning; the cabin-doors were rattling upon their hooks; the
wheel-chains were clanking as the rudder kicked to the wash and swirl
under the counter; and there was a gurgling, dripping wash of water
along the bends, without any seething sound in it, that told me, apart
from the other noises of the ship, that we were again becalmed. The sun
was streaming brilliantly in through the porthole of my cabin, flooding
the little apartment with warmth and golden light; and the swishing and
scrubbing sounds overhead told me that the hands were busy at the job of
washing decks. It was a welcome, joyous sound, as evidence of the fact
that we once more had a crew on board us; and I thrust my feet into my
slippers and went on deck to get my morning bath with a feeling of
gaiety and blithesomeness that taught me, for the first time, how heavy
had been the load of anxiety that I had lately borne, and that had
slipped from my shoulders with the arrival of the _Golden Gates_ crew on
board.

It was a glorious morning, with a clear, brilliantly blue, cloudless sky
overhead, out of which the sun, though only an hour high, already blazed
with an ardour that gave promise of a scorching day; the sea was
oil-smooth, with a glittering sheen like that of quicksilver in the wake
of the sun, while away to the westward of us it flashed and gleamed in
hues of the softest, purest, opalescent blue to the side of the ship
with the running of the swell. There was not a breath of wind, nor the
remotest sign of any; so I ordered the lighter canvas and the courses to
be hauled down and clewed up, to save them from thrashing themselves to
rags; and, having revelled in the luxury of a shower-bath of cool,
sparkling brine from the hose, left the ship under the topsails and
fore-topmast staysail, and went below