that their spirits became naturally
restored; and once more they began to take counsel together about the
ways and means of prolonging their existence.

It is true that their situation was still desperate. Should a storm
spring up,--even an ordinary gale,--not only would their canvas
water-cask be bilged, and its contents spilled out to mingle with the
briny billow, but their frail embarkation would be in danger of going to
pieces, or of being whelmed fathoms deep under the frothing waves. In a
high latitude, either north or south, their chance of keeping afloat
would have been slight indeed. A week, or rather only a single day,
would have been as long as they could have expected that calm to
continue; and the experienced sailor knew well enough that anything in
the shape of a storm would expose them to certain destruction. To
console him for this unpleasant knowledge, however, he also knew that in
the ocean, where they were then afloat, storms are exceedingly rare, and
that ships are often in greater danger from the very opposite state of
the atmosphere,--from _calms_. They were in that part of the Atlantic
Ocean known among the early Spanish navigators as the _Horse
Latitudes_,--so-called because the horses at that time being carried
across to the New World, for want of water in the becalmed ships, died
in great numbers, and being thrown overboard were often seen floating
upon the surface of the sea.

A prettier and more poetical name have these same Spaniards given to a
portion of the same Atlantic Ocean,--which, from the gentleness of its
breezes, they have styled "_La Mar de las Damas_" (the Ladies' Sea).

Ben Brace knew that in the Horse Latitudes storms were of rare
occurrence; and hence the hopefulness with which he was now looking
forward to the future.

He was no longer inactive. If he believed in the special Interference
of Providence, he also believed that Providence would expect him to make
some exertion of himself,--such as circumstances might permit and
require.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

FLENSING A SHARK.

The flesh of the shark, and the stock of water so singularly obtained
and so deftly stored away, might, if properly kept and carefully used,
last them for many days; and to the preservation of these stores the
thoughts of the sailor and his young companion were now specially
directed.

For the former they could do nothing more than had been already done,--
further than to cover the tarpauli