possible to steam back against the
wind to the Cape, and it was a great question whether the ship could be
kept afloat until the Mauritius--the nearest land--could be reached.
Adair and Jos Green anxiously examined the chart.

"Should the wind shift a few points more to the westward, we might
manage it under sail, but in our present circumstances the only thing to
be done is to keep the ship before the gale," observed the master.

In few parts of the ocean is the sea more heavy than in the latitude in
which the _Empress_ now was, except, perhaps, to the southward of Cape
Horn. All the other pumps were now set going, and a fresh party was
told off to bale out the water with iron hand-buckets. These were
hoisted up at the rate of seventy an hour.

"Set the fiddle and fife going, it will keep up the spirits of the men,"
said Adair to the first lieutenant, who at once issued the order.
Presently merry notes were heard amid the howling of the gale, sounding
strangely, and yet inspiriting the crew. Still, in spite of all that
could be done, the water rose higher and higher.

"Peter," said Pat Casey to his old shipmate, when, after toiling for
four hours, they knocked off to get a little rest, "it's my opinion that
this is the last cruise you and I shall take together. I've been in
many a mighty quare fix before now, but niver one like this. Sure,
there's nothin' I hate more than a ship with a hole in her bottom, an'
that's what we've got, an' a pretty big one, I'm after thinkin'."

"You no gib up, Pat," answered Peter. "We fall in with 'nother ship, or
sight some land, and we get 'shore, or stop de leak. When de cap'n
finds de ship make too much water, he keep her 'float by fixin' a sail
under her."

"You may say what ye plaise, but before a sail could be thrummed an'
passed under her keel, she'll be many fathoms down into the depths of
the ocean. An' supposin' we did fall in with a ship, sure, how could we
get aboard of her with this sea runnin'? Then, as to reaching land--
where's the land to reach? I niver heard speak of any land away to the
south'ard, except the icy pole, an' that we should niver see if we
wished it ever so much."

"Dat may be de case; I nebber could make out de meanin' ob a chart, but
wheneber I hab been in de Pacific, me find many islands, and tink dere
mus' be some here'bout. Why you so down-hearted?"

"Down-hearted is it, sure? I'm not down-hearted, Pater; but I'll tell
ye, I drea