lly
adapted and exactly proportioned to the circumstances in which
individuals may happen to be placed--a power which, in most cases, is
sufficient to carry a man through and over every obstacle that may
happen to be thrown in his path through life, no matter how high or how
steep the mountain may be, but which often forsakes him the moment the
summit is gained, the point of difficulty passed, and leaves him
prostrated, with energies gone, nerves unstrung, and a feeling of
incapacity pervading the entire frame that renders the most trifling
effort almost impossible.

During the greater part of that day I had been subjected to severe
mental and much physical excitement, which had almost crushed me down by
the time I was relieved from duty in the course of the evening. But
when the expedition whose failure has just been narrated was planned, my
anxieties and energies had been so powerfully aroused that I went
through the protracted scenes of that terrible night without a feeling
of the slightest fatigue. My mind and body were alike active and full
of energy. No sooner was the last thrilling fear of danger past,
however, than my faculties were utterly relaxed; and when I felt the
cool breezes of the Pacific playing around my fevered brow, and heard
the free waves rippling at the schooner's prow, as we left the hated
island behind us, my senses forsook me, and I fell in a swoon upon the
deck.

From this state I was quickly aroused by Bill, who shook me by the arm,
saying:

"Hallo, Ralph, boy! Rouse up, lad; we're safe now! Poor thing! I
believe he's fainted." And raising me in his arms he laid me on the
folds of the gaff-topsail, which lay upon the deck near the tiller.
"Here, take a drop o' this; it'll do you good, my boy," he added in a
voice of tenderness which I had never heard him use before, while he
held a brandy-flask to my lips.

I raised my eyes gratefully as I swallowed a mouthful; next moment my
head sank heavily upon my arm, and I fell fast asleep. I slept long,
for when I awoke the sun was a good way above the horizon. I did not
move on first opening my eyes, as I felt a delightful sensation of rest
pervading me, and my eyes were riveted on and charmed with the gorgeous
splendour of the mighty ocean that burst upon my sight. It was a dead
calm; the sea seemed a sheet of undulating crystal, tipped and streaked
with the saffron hues of sunrise, which had not yet merged into the
glowing heat of no