ze. He looked, but saw
nothing. Only the sea-kit that by this time had got several hundred
fathoms to windward, cask Number 1 a little nearer, and Number 2 still
nearer. These, however, strung out in a line, enabled him to conjecture
the direction in which the swimmers, if still above water, should be
found.

Indeed, it was something more definite than a conjecture. Rather was it
a certainty. He knew that the raft could not have made way otherwise
than _down the wind_; and that those who belonged to it could not be
elsewhere than to windward.

Guided, therefore, by the breeze, he gazed in this direction,--sweeping
with his eye an arc of the horizon sufficiently large to allow for any
deviation which the swimmers might have made from the true track.

He gazed in vain. The kit, the casks, a gull or two, soaring on snowy
wings, were all the objects that broke the monotony of the blue water to
windward.

He glided across the low-lying planks of the raft, and up to the empty
cask still attached, which offered the highest point for observation.
He balanced himself on its top, and once more scanned the sea to
windward.

Nothing in sight, save kit, casks, and gulls lazily plying their long
scimitar-shaped wings with easy unconcern, as if the limitless ocean
was,--what in reality it was,--their habitat and home.

Suffering the torture of disappointment,--each moment increasing in
agony,--little William leaped down from the cask; and, rushing
amidships, commenced mounting the mast.

In a few seconds he had swarmed to its top: and, there clinging, once
more directed his glance over the water. He gazed long without
discovering any trace of his missing companions,--so long that his
sinews were tried to the utmost; and the muscles both of his arms and
limbs becoming relaxed, he was compelled to let go, and slide down
despairingly upon the planks forming the deck of the _Catamaran_.

He stayed below only long enough to recover strength; and then a second
time went swarming up the stick. If kit and casks should serve no
better purpose, they at least guided him as to the direction; and
looking over both, he scanned the sea beyond.

The gulls guided him still better; for both--there was a brace of them--
had now descended near to the surface of the sea; and, wheeling in short
flights, seemed to occupy themselves with some object in the water
below. Though they were at a great distance off, he could hear an
occasional