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The Survivors of the Chancellor

by Jules Verne

April, 1999  [Etext #1698]


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WORKS
of
JULES VERNE

EDITED BY

CHARLES F. HORNE




INTRODUCTION

THE SURVIVORS OF THE CHANCELLOR
was issued in 1875. Shipwrecks occur
in other of Verne's tales; but this is his only
story devoted wholly to such a disaster. In it
the author has gathered all the tragedy, the
mystery, and the suffering possible to the sea. All the vari-
ous forms of disaster, all the possibilities of horror, the
depths of shame and agony, are heaped upon these unhappy
voyagers. The accumulation is mathematically complete
and emotionally unforgettable. The tale has well been called
the "imperishable epic of shipwreck."

The idea of the book is said to have originated in the cele-
brated French painting by Gericault, "the Wreck of the
Medusa," now in the Louvre gallery. The Medusa was a
French frigate wrecked off the coast of Africa in 1816.
Some of the survivors, escaping on a raft, were rescued by
a passing ship after many days of torture. Verne, however,
seems also to have drawn upon the terrifying experiences of
the British ship Sarah Sands in 1857, her story being fresh
in the public mind at the time he wrote. The Sarah Sands
caught fire off the African coast while on a voyage to India
carrying British troops. There was gunpowder aboard li-
able to blow up at any moment. Some of it did indeed ex-
plode, tearing a huge hole in the vessel's side. A storm
added to the terror, and the waters entering the breach
caused by the explosion, combated with the fire. After ten
days of desperate struggle, the charred and sinking vessel
reached a port.

The extreme length of life which Verne allows his people
in their starving, thirsting condition is proven possible by
medical science and recent "fasting"' experiments. The
dramatic climax of the tale wherein the castaways find fresh
water in the ocean is based upon a fact, one of those odd
geographical facts of which the author made such frequent,
skillful and instructive use.

"Michael Strogoff" which, through its use as a stage
play, has become one of the best known books of all the
world, was first published in 1876. Its vivid, powerful
story has made it a favorite with every red-blooded reader.
Its two well-drawn female characters, the courageous hero-
ine, and the stern, endurant, yearning mother, show how
well Verne could depict the tenderer sex when he so willed.
Though usually the rapid movement and adventure of his
stories leave women in subordinate parts.

As to the picture drawn in "Michael Strogoff" of Russia
and Siberia, it is at once instructive and sympathetic.
The horrors are not blinked at, yet neither is Russian patri-
otism ignored. The loyalty of some of the Siberian exiles
to their mother country is a side of life there which is too
often ignored by writers who dwell only on the darker view.

The Czar, in our author's hands, becomes the hero figure
to the erection of which French "hero worship" is ever
prone. The sarcasms thrown occasionally at the British
newspaper correspondent of the story, show the changing
attitude of Verne toward England, and reflect the French
spirit of his day.




The Survivors of the Chancellor

by Jules Verne




CHAPTER I
THE CHANCELLOR

CHARLESTON, September 27, 1898. -- It is
high tide, and three o'clock in the afternoon
when we leave the Battery quay; the ebb
carries us off shore, and as Captain Huntly
has hoisted both main and top sails, the north-
erly breeze drives the Chancellor briskly
across the bay. Fort Sumter ere long is doubled, the
sweeping batteries of the mainland on our left are soon
passed, and by four o'clock the rapid current of the ebbing
tide has carried us through the harbor mouth.

But as yet we have not reached the open sea we have still
to thread our way through the narrow channels which the
surge has hollowed out amongst the sand-banks.  The
captain takes a southwest course, rounding the lighthouse
at the corner of the fort; the sails are closely trimmed; the
last sandy point is safely coasted, and at length, at seven
o'clock in the evening, we are out free upon the wide At-
lantic.

The Chancellor is a fine square-rigged three-master, of
900 tons burden, and belongs to the wealthy Liverpool firm
of Laird Brothers. She is two years old, is sheathed and
secured with copper, her decks being of teak, and the base
of all her masts, except the mizzen, with all their fittings,
being of iron. She is registered first class, A 1, and is now
on her third voyage between Charleston and Liverpool. As
she wended her way through the channels of Charleston
harbor, it was the British flag that was lowered from her
mast-head; but without colors at all, no sailor could have
hesitated for a moment in telling her nationality, -- for Eng-
lish she was, and nothing but English from her water-line
upward to the truck of her masts.

I must now relate how it happens that I have taken my
passage on board the Chancellor on her return voyage to
England.

At present there is no direct steamship service between
South Carolina and Great Britain, and all who wish to cross
must go either northward to New York or southward to
New Orleans. It is quite true that if I had chosen a start
from New York I might have found plenty of vessels be-
longing to English, French, or Hamburg lines, any of which
would have conveyed me by a rapid voyage to my destina-
tion; and it is equally true that if I had selected New Or-
leans for my embarkation I could readily have reached
Europe by one of the vessels of the National Steam Naviga-
tion Company, which join the French transatlantic line
of Colon and Aspinwall. But it was fated to be otherwise.

One day, as I was loitering about the Charleston quays,
my eye lighted on this vessel. There was something about
the Chancellor that pleased me, and a kind of involuntary
impulse took me on board, where I found the internal ar-
rangements perfectly comfortable. Yielding to the idea
that a voyage in a sailing vessel had certain charms beyond
the transit in a steamer, and reckoning that with wind and
wave in my favor there would be little material difference
in time; considering, moreover, that in these low latitudes
the weather in early autumn is fine and unbroken, I came
to my decision, and proceeded forthwith to secure my pas-
sage by this route to Europe.

Have I done right or wrong? Whether I shall have rea-
son to regret my determination is a problem to be solved in
the future. However, I will begin to record the incidents
of our daily experience, dubious as I feel whether the lines
of my chronicle will ever find a reader.


CHAPTER II
CREW AND PASSENGERS

SEPTEMBER 28. -- John Silas Huntly, the captain of the
Chancellor, has the reputation of being a most experienced
navigator of the Atlantic. He is a Scotchman by birth,
a native of Dundee, and is about fifty years of age. He is
of the middle height and slight build, and has a small head,
which he has a habit of holding a little over his left shoulder.
I do not pretend to be much of a physiognomist, but I am
inclined to believe that my few hours' acquaintance with our
captain has given me considerable insight into his charac-
ter. That he is a good seaman and thoroughly understands
his duties I could not for a moment venture to deny; but
that he is a man of resolute temperament, or that he pos-
sesses the amount of courage that would render him, phy-
sically or morally, capable of coping with any great emer-
gency, I confess I cannot believe. I observed a certain
heaviness and dejection about his whole carriage. His
wavering glances, the listless motion of his hands, and his
slow, unsteady gait, all seem to me to indicate a weak and
sluggish disposition. He does not appear as though he
could be energetic enough ever to be stubborn; he never
frowns, sets his teeth, or clenches his fists. There is some-
thing enigmatical about him; however, I shall study him
closely, and do what I can to understand the man who, as
commander of a vessel, should be to those around him
"second only to God."

Unless I am greatly mistaken there is another man on
board who, if circumstances should require it, would take
the more prominent position -- I mean the mate. I have
hitherto, however, had so little opportunity of observing his
character, that I must defer saying more about him at pres-
ent.

Besides the captain and this mate, whose name is Robert
Curtis, our crew consists of Walter, the lieutenant, the boat-
swain, and fourteen sailors, all English or Scotch, making
eighteen altogether, a number quite sufficient for working
a vessel of 900 tons burden. Up to this time my sole ex-
perience of their capabilities is, that under the command of
the mate, they brought us skillfully enough through the
narrow channels of Charleston; and I have no reason to
doubt that they are well up to their work.

My list of the ship's officials is incomplete unless I men-
tion Hobart the steward and Jynxstrop the negro cook.

In addition to these, the Chancellor carries eight pas-
sengers, including myself. Hitherto, the bustle of em-
barkation, the arrangement of cabins, and all the variety of
preparations inseparable from starting on a voyage for at
least twenty or five-and-twenty days have precluded the
formation of any acquaintanceships; but the monotony of
the voyage, the close proximity into which we must be
thrown, and the natural curiosity to know something of each
other's affairs, will doubtless lead us in due time to an ex-
change of ideas. Two days have elapsed and I have not
even seen all the passengers. Probably sea-sickness has
prevented some of them from making an appearance at the
common table. One thing, however, I do know; namely,
that there are two ladies occupying the stern cabin, the win-
dows of which are in the aft-board of the vessel.

I have seen the ship's list, and subjoin a list of the pas-
sengers. They are as follows:

     Mr. and Mrs. Kear, Americans, of Buffalo.

     Miss Herbey, a young English lady, companion to Mrs.
Kear.

     M. Letourneur and his son Andre, Frenchmen, of Havre.

     William Falsten, a Manchester engineer.

     John Ruby, a Cardiff merchant; and myself, J. R. Kazal-
lon, of London.


CHAPTER III
BILL OF LADING

SEPTEMBER 29. -- Captain Huntly's bill of lading, that is
to say, the document that describes the Chancellor's cargo
and the conditions of transport, is couched in the following
terms:

Bronsfield and Co., Agents, Charleston:

     I, John Silas Huntly, of Dundee, Scotland, commander
of the ship Chancellor, of about 900 tons burden, now at
Charleston, do purpose, by the blessing of God, at the earli-
est convenient season, and by the direct route, to sail for the
port of Liverpool, where I shall obtain my discharge. I
do hereby acknowledge that I have received from you,
Messrs. Bronsfield and Co., Commission Agents, Charles-
ton, and have placed the same under the gun-deck of the
aforesaid ship, seventeen hundred bales of cotton, of the
estimated value of 26,000 L., all in good condition, marked
and numbered as in the margin; which goods I do undertake
to transport to Liverpool, and there to deliver, free from
injury (save only such injury as shall have been caused by
the chances of the sea), to Messrs. Laird Brothers, or to
their order, or to their representatives, who shall on due
delivery of the said freight pay me the sum of 2,000 L. inclu-
sive, according to the charter-party, and damages in addi-
tion, according to the usages and customs of the sea.

And for the fulfillment of the above covenant, I have
pledged and do pledge my person, my property, and my
interest in the vessel aforesaid, with all its appurtenances.
In witness whereof, I have signed three agreements all of
the same purport, on the condition that when the terms of
one are accomplished, the other two shall be absolutely null
and void.

     Given at Charleston, September 13th, 1869.

                         J. S. HUNTLY.

From the foregoing document it will be understood that
the Chancellor is conveying 1,700 bales of cotton to Liver-
pool; that the shippers are Bronsfield, of Charleston, and
the consignees are Laird Brothers of Liverpool. The ship
was constructed with the especial design of carrying cotton,
and the entire hold, with the exception of a very limited
space reserved for passenger's luggage, is closely packed
with the bales. The lading was performed with the utmost
care, each bale being pressed into its proper place by the
aid of screw-jacks, so that the whole freight forms one solid
and compact mass; not an inch of space is wasted, and the
vessel is thus made capable of carrying her full complement
of cargo.


CHAPTER IV
SOMETHING ABOUT MY FELLOW PASSENGERS

SEPTEMBER 30 to October 6. -- The Chancellor is a rapid
sailer, and more than a match for many a vessel of the
same dimensions. She scuds along merrily in the freshen-
ing breeze, leaving in her wake, far as the eye can reach, a
long white line of foam as well defined as a delicate strip
of lace stretched upon an azure ground.

The Atlantic is not visited by many gales, and I have
every reason to believe that the rolling and pitching of the
vessel no longer incommode any of the passengers, who are
all more or less accustomed to the sea. A vacant seat at
our table is now very rare; we are beginning to know some-
thing about each other, and our daily life, in consequence,
is becoming somewhat less monotonous.

M. Letourneur, our French fellow-passenger, often has
a chat with me. He is a fine tall man, about fifty years of
age, with white hair and a grizzly beard. To say the truth,
he looks older than he really is: his drooping head, his de-
jected manner, and his eye, ever and again suffused with
tears, indicate that he is haunted by some deep and abiding
sorrow. He never laughs; he rarely even smiles, and then
only on his son; his countenance ordinarily bearing a look
of bitterness tempered by affection, while his general ex-
pression is one of caressing tenderness. It excites an invol-
untary commiseration to learn that M. Letourneur is con-
suming himself by exaggerated reproaches on account of
the infirmity of an afflicted son.

Andre Letourneur is about twenty years of age, with a
gentle, interesting countenance, but, to the irrepressible
grief of his father, is a hopeless cripple. His left leg is
miserably deformed, and he is quite unable to walk without
the assistance of a stick. It is obvious that the father's
life is bound up with that of his son; his devotion is unceas-
ing; every thought, every glance is for Andre; he seems to
anticipate his most trifling wish, watches his slightest move-
ment, and his arm is ever ready to support or otherwise
assist the child whose sufferings he more than shares.

M. Letourneur seems to have taken a peculiar fancy to
myself, and constantly talks about Andre. This morning,
in the course of conversation, I said:

"You have a good son, M. Letourneur.   I have just
been talking to him. He is a most intelligent young man."

"Yes, Mr. Kazallon," replied M. Letourneur, brighten-
ing up into a smile, "his afflicted frame contains a noble
mind. He is like his mother, who died at his birth."

"He is full of reverence and love for you, sir," I re-
marked.

"Dear boy!" muttered the father half to himself. "Ah,
Mr. Kazallon," he continued, "you do not know what it is
to a father to have a son a cripple, beyond hope of cure."

"M. Letourneur," I answered, "you take more than your
share of the affliction which has fallen upon you and your
son. That M. Andre is entitled to the very greatest com-
miseration no one can deny; but you should remember, that
after all a physical infirmity is not so hard to bear as mental
grief. Now, I have watched your son pretty closely, and
unless I am much mistaken there is nothing that troubles
him so much as the sight of your own sorrow."

"But I never let him see it," he broke in hastily. "My
sole thought is how to divert him. I have discovered that,
in spite of his physical weakness, he delights in traveling;
so for the last few years we have been constantly on the
move. We first went all over Europe, and are now re-
turning from visiting the principal places in the United
States. I never allowed my son to go to college, but in-
structed him entirely myself, and these travels, I hope, will
serve to complete his education. He is very intelligent, and
has a lively imagination, and I am sometimes tempted to
hope that in contemplating the wonders of nature he forgets
his own infirmity."

"Yes, sir, of course he does," I assented.

"But," continued M. Letourneur, taking my hand, "al-
though, perhaps, HE may forget, I can never forget. Ah,
sir, do you suppose that Andre can ever forgive his parents
for bringing him into the world a cripple?"

The remorse of the unhappy father was very distressing,
and I was about to say a few kind words of sympathy when
Andre himself made his appearance. M. Letourneur has-
tened toward him and assisted him up the few steep steps
that led to the poop.

As soon as Andre was comfortably seated on one of the
benches, and his father had taken his place by his side, I
joined them, and we fell into conversation upon ordinary
topics, discussing the various points of the Chancellor, the
probable length of the passage, and the different details of
our life on board. I find that M. Letourneur's estimate of
Captain Huntly's character very much coincides with my
own, and that, like me, he is impressed with the man's un-
decided manner and sluggish appearance. Like me, too, he
has formed a very favorable opinion of Robert Curtis, the
mate, a man of about thirty years of age, of great muscular
power, with a frame and a will that seem ever ready for
action.

While we were still talking of him, Curtis himself came
on deck, and as I watched his movements I could not help
being struck with his physical development; his erect and
easy carriage, his fearless glance and slightly contracted
brow all betoken a man of energy, thoroughly endowed
with the calmness and courage that are indispensable to the
true sailor. He seems a kind-hearted fellow, too, and is al-
ways ready to assist and amuse young Letourneur, who evi-
dently enjoys his company. After he had scanned the
weather and examined the trim of the sails, he joined our
party and proceeded to give us some information about those
of our fellow-passengers with whom at present we have
made but slight acquaintance.

Mr. Kear, the American, who is accompanied by his wife,
has made a large fortune in the petroleum springs in the
United States. He is a man of about fifty, a most uninter-
esting companion, being overwhelmed with a sense of his
own wealth and importance, and consequently supremely
indifferent to all around him. His hands are always in his
pockets, and the chink of money seems to follow him
wherever he goes. Vain and conceited, a fool as well as an
egotist, he struts about like a peacock showing its plumage,
and to borrow the words of the physiognomist Gratiolet,
"il se flaire, il se savoure, il se goute." Why he should
have taken his passage on board a mere merchant vessel
instead of enjoying the luxuries of a transatlantic steamer,
I am altogether at a loss to explain.

The wife is an insignificant, insipid woman, of about
forty years of age. She never reads, never talks, and I
believe I am not wrong in saying, never thinks. She seems
to look without seeing, and listen without hearing, and her
sole occupation consists in giving her orders to her com-
panion, Miss Herbey, a young English girl of about twenty.

Miss Herbey is extremely pretty. Her complexion is
fair and her eyes deep blue, while her pleasing countenance
is altogether free from that insignificance of feature which
is not unfrequently alleged to be characteristic of English
beauty. Her mouth would be charming if she ever smiled,
but, exposed as she is to the ridiculous whims and fancies
of a capricious mistress, her lips rarely relax from their
ordinary grave expression. Yet, humiliating as her posi-
tion must be, she never utters a word of open complaint,
but quietly and gracefully performs her duties, accepting
without a murmur the paltry salary which the bumptious
petroleum-merchant condescends to allow her.

The Manchester engineer, William Falsten, looks like a
thorough Englishman. He has the management of some
extensive hydraulic works in South Carolina, and is now on
his way to Europe to obtain some improved apparatus, and
more especially to visit the mines worked by centrifugal
force, belonging to the firm of Messrs. Cail. He is forty-
five years of age, with all his interests so entirely absorbed
by his machinery that he seems to have neither a thought
nor a care beyond his mechanical calculations. Once let
him engage you in conversation, and there is no chance of
escape; you have no help for it but to listen as patiently
as you can until he has completed the explanation of his
designs.

The last of our fellow-passengers, Mr. Ruby, is the type
of a vulgar tradesman. Without any originality or
magnanimity in his composition, he has spent twenty years
of his life in mere buying and selling, and as he has gener-
ally contrived to do business at a profit, he has realized a
considerable fortune. What he is going to do with the
money, he does not seem able to say: his ideas do not go
beyond retail trade, his mind having been so long closed to
all other impressions that it appears incapable of thought
or reflection on any subject besides. Pascal says,
"L'homme est visiblement fait pour penser. C'est toute
sa dignite et tout son merite;" but to Mr. Ruby the phrase
seems altogether inapplicable.


CHAPTER V
AN UNUSUAL ROUTE

OCTOBER 7. -- This is the tenth day since we left Charles-
ton, and I should think our progress has been very rapid.
Robert Curtis, the mate, with whom I continue to have
many a friendly chat, informed me that we could not be far
off the Bermudas; the ship's bearings, he said, were lat.
32 deg. 20' N. and long. 64 deg. 50' W. so that he had every reason
to believe that we should sight St. George's Island before
night.

"The Bermudas!" I exclaimed. "But how is it we are
off the Bermudas? I should have thought that a vessel sail-
ing from Charleston to Liverpool, would have kept north-
ward, and have followed the track of the Gulf Stream."

"Yes, indeed, sir," replied Curtis, "that is the usual
course; but you see that this time the captain hasn't chosen
to take it."

"But why not?" I persisted.

"That's not for me to say, sir; he ordered us eastward,
and eastward we go."

"Haven't you called his attention to it?" I inquired.

Curtis acknowledged that he had already pointed out
what an unusual route they were taking, but that the cap-
tain had said that he was quite aware what he was about.
The mate made no further remark; but the knit of his brow,
as he passed his hand mechanically across his forehead,
made me fancy that he was inclined to speak out more
strongly.

"All very well, Curtis," I said, "but I don't know what
to think about trying new routes. Here we are at the 7th
of October, and if we are to reach Europe before the bad
weather sets in, I should suppose there is not a day to be
lost."

"Right, sir, quite right; there is not a day to be lost."

Struck by his manner, I ventured to add, "Do you mind,
Curtis, giving me your honest opinion of Captain Huntly?"

He hesitated a moment, and then replied shortly, "He is
my captain, sir."

This evasive answer of course put an end to any further
interrogation on my part.

Curtis was not mistaken. At about three o'clock the
look-out man sung out that there was land to windward,
and descried what seemed as if it might be a line of smoke
in the northeast horizon. At six, I went on deck with M.
Letourneur and his son, and we could then distinctly make
out the low group of the Bermudas, encircled by their
formidable chain of breakers.

"There," said Andre Letourneur to me, as we stood gaz-
ing at the distant land, "there lies the enchanted archipel-
ago, sung by your poet Moore. The exile Waller, too, as
long ago as 1643, wrote an enthusiastic panegyric on the
islands, and I have been told that at one time English ladies
would wear no other bonnets than such as were made of the
leaves of the Bermuda palm."

"Yes," I replied, "the Bermudas were all the rage in
the seventeenth century, although latterly they have fallen
into comparative oblivion."

"But let me tell you, M. Andre," interposed Curtis, who
had as usual joined our party, "that although poets may
rave, and be as enthusiastic as they like about these islands,
sailors will tell a different tale. The hidden reefs that lie
in a semicircle about two or three leagues from shore make
the attempt to land a very dangerous piece of business.
And another thing, I know. Let the natives boast as they
will about their splendid climate, they are visited by the
most frightful hurricanes. They get the fag-end of the
storms that rage over the Antilles; and the fag-end of a
storm is like the tail of a whale; it's just the strongest bit of
it. I don't think you'll find a sailor listening much to your
poets -- your Moores, and your Wallers."

"No doubt you are right, Mr. Curtis," said Andre, smil-
ing, "but poets are like proverbs; you can always find one
to contradict another. Although Waller and Moore have
chosen to sing the praises of the Bermudas, it has been sup-
posed that Shakspeare was depicting them in the terrible
scenes that are found in 'The Tempest.'"

I may mention that there was not another of our fellow-
passengers who took the trouble to come on deck and give
a glance at this strange cluster of islands. Miss Herbey, it
is true, was making an attempt to join us, but she had barely
reached the poop, when Mrs. Kear's languid voice was
heard recalling her for some trifling service to her side.


CHAPTER VI
THE SARGASSO SEA

OCTOBER 8 to October 13. -- The wind is blowing hard
from the northeast, and the Chancellor, under low-reefed
top-sail and fore-sail, and laboring against a heavy sea, has
been obliged to be brought ahull. The joists and girders
all creak again until one's teeth are set on edge. I am the
only passenger not remaining below; but I prefer being on
deck notwithstanding the driving rain, fine as dust, which
penetrates to the very skin. We have been driven along in
this fashion for the best part of two days; the "stiffish
breeze" has gradually freshened into "a gale"; the top-
gallants have been lowered, and, as I write, the wind is
blowing with a velocity of fifty or sixty miles an hour. Al-
though the Chancellor has many good points, her drift is
considerable, and we have been carried far to the south; we
can only guess at our precise position, as the cloudy at-
mosphere entirely precludes us from taking the sun's alti-
tude.

All along, throughout this period, my fellow-passengers
are totally ignorant of the extraordinary course that we are
taking. England lies to the northeast, yet we are sailing
directly southeast, and Robert Curtis owns that he is quite be-
wildered; he cannot comprehend why the captain, ever since
this northeasterly gale has been blowing, should persist in
allowing the ship to drive to the south, instead of tacking
to the northwest until she gets into better quarters.

I was alone with Robert Curtis to-day upon the poop,
and could not help saying to him, "Curtis, is your captain
mad?"

"Perhaps, sir, I might be allowed to ask what YOU think
upon that matter," was his cautious reply.

"Well, to say the truth," I answered. "I can hardly tell;
but I confess there is every now and then a wandering in
his eye, and an odd look on his face that I do not like.
Have you ever sailed with him before?"

"No; this is our first voyage together. Again last night
I spoke to him about the route we were taking, but he only
said he knew all about it, and that it was all right."

"What do Lieutenant Walter and your boatswain think
of it all?" I inquired.

"Think; why, they think just the same as I do," replied
the mate; "but if the captain chooses to take the ship to
China we should obey his orders."

"But surely," I exclaimed, "there must be some limit to
your obedience! Suppose the man is actually mad, what
then?"

"If he should be mad enough, Mr. Kazallon, to bring the
vessel into any real danger, I shall know what to do."

With this assurance I am forced to be content. Matters,
however, have taken a different turn to what I bargained
for when I took my passage on board the Chancellor. The
weather has become worse and worse. As I have already
said, the ship under her large low-reefed top-sail and fore
stay-sail has been brought ahull, that is to say, she copes
directly with the wind, by presenting her broad bows to the
sea; and so we go on still drift, drift, continually to the
south.

How southerly our course has been is very apparent; for
upon the night of the 11th we fairly entered upon that por-
tion of the Atlantic which is known as the Sargasso Sea.
An extensive tract of water is this, inclosed by the warm
current of the Gulf Stream, and thickly covered with the
wrack, called by the Spaniards "sargasso," the abundance
of which so seriously impeded the progress of Columbus's
vessel on his first voyage.

Each morning at daybreak the Atlantic has presented an
aspect so remarkable, that at my solicitation, M. Letourneur
and his son have ventured upon deck to witness the unusual
spectacle. The squally gusts make the metal shrouds
vibrate like harp-strings; and unless we were on our guard
to keep our clothes wrapped tightly to us, they would have
been torn off our backs in shreds. The scene presented to
our eyes is one of strangest interest. The sea, carpeted
thickly with masses of prolific fucus, is a vast unbroken
plain of vegetation, through which the vessel makes her way
as a plow. Long strips of seaweed caught up by the wind
become entangled in the rigging, and hang between the
masts in festoons of verdure; while others, varying from
two to three hundred feet in length, twine themselves up to
the very mast-head, from whence they float like streaming
pennants. For many hours now, the Chancellor has been
contending with this formidable accumulation of algae; her
masts are circled with hydrophytes; her rigging is wreathed
everywhere with creepers, fantastic as the untrammeled ten-
drils of a vine, and as she works her arduous course, there
are times when I can only compare her to an animated
grove of verdure making its mysterious way over some
illimitable prairie.


CHAPTER VII
VOICES IN THE NIGHT

OCTOBER 14. -- At last we are free from the sea of vegeta-
tion, the boisterous gale has moderated into a steady breeze,
the sun is shining brightly, the weather is warm and genial,
and thus, two reefs in her top-sails, briskly and merrily
sails the Chancellor.

Under conditions so favorable, we have been able to take
the ship's bearings: our latitude, we find, is 21 deg. 33' N., our
longitude, 50 deg. 17' W.

Incomprehensible altogether is the conduct of Captain
Huntly. Here we are, already more than ten degrees south
of the point from which we started, and yet still we are per-
sistently following a southeasterly course! I cannot bring
myself to the conclusion that the man is mad. I have had
various conversations with him: he has always spoken
rationally and sensibly. He shows no tokens of insanity.
Perhaps his case is one of those in which insanity is partial,
and where the mania is of a character which extends only
to the matters connected with his profession. Yet it is un-
accountable.

I can get nothing out of Curtis; he listens coldly when-
ever I allude to the subject, and only repeats what he has
said before, that nothing short of an overt act of madness
on the part of the captain could induce him to supersede the
captain's authority, and that the imminent peril of the ship
could alone justify him in taking so decided a measure.

Last evening I went to my cabin about eight o'clock, and
after an hour's reading by the light of my cabin-lamp, I
retired to my berth and was soon asleep. Some hours later
I was aroused by an unaccustomed noise on deck. There
were heavy footsteps hurrying to and fro, and the voices
of the men were loud and eager, as if the crew were agitated
by some strange disturbance. My first impression was, that
some tacking had been ordered which rendered it needful
to fathom the yards; but the vessel continuing to lie to star-
board convinced me that this was not the origin of the com-
motion. I was curious to know the truth, and made all
haste I could to go on deck; but before I was ready, the
noise had ceased. I heard Captain Huntly return to his
cabin, and accordingly I retired again to my own berth.
Whatever may have been the meaning of the maneuver, I
cannot tell; it did not seem to result in any improvement
in the ship's pace; still it must be owned there was not much
wind to speed us along.

At six o'clock this morning I mounted the poop and made
as keen a scrutiny as I could of everything on board.
Everything appeared as usual. The Chancellor was run-
ning on the larboard tack, and carried low-sails, top-sails,
and gallant-sails. Well braced she was; and under a fresh,
but not uneasy breeze, was making no less than eleven knots
an hour.

Shortly afterward M. Letourneur and Andre came on
deck. The young man enjoyed the early morning air,
laden with its briny fragrance, and I assisted him to mount
the poop. In answer to my inquiry as to whether they had
been disturbed by any bustle in the night, Andre replied
that he did not wake at all, and had heard nothing.

"I am glad, my boy," said the father, "that you have
slept so soundly. I heard the noise of which Mr. Kazallon
speaks. It must have been about three o'clock this morning,
and it seemed to me as though they were shouting. I
thought I heard them say; 'Here, quick, look to the
hatches!' but as nobody was called up, I presumed that
nothing serious was the matter."

As he spoke I cast my eye at the panel-slides, which fore
and aft of the main-mast open into the hold. They seemed
to be all close as usual, but I now observed for the first time
that they were covered with heavy tarpauling. Wondering
in my own mind what could be the reason for these ex-
tra precautions I did not say anything to M. Letourneur,
but determined to wait until the mate should come on watch,
when he would doubtless give me, I thought, an explanation
of the mystery.

The sun rose gloriously, with every promise of a fine
dry day. The waning moon was yet above the western
horizon, for as it still wants three days to her last quarter
she does not set until 10:57 A. M. On consulting my al-
manac, I find that there will be a new moon on the 24th,
and that on that day, little as it may affect us here in mid-
ocean, the phenomenon of the high sygyzian tides will take
place on the shores of every continent and island.

At the breakfast hour M. Letourneur and Andre went
below for a cup of tea, and I remained on the poop alone.
As I expected, Curtis appeared, that he might relieve Lieu-
tenant Walter of the watch. I advanced to meet him, but be-
fore he even wished me good morning, I saw him cast a
quick and searching glance upon the deck, and then, with a
slightly contracted brow, proceed to examine the state of
the weather and the trim of the sails.

"Where is Captain Huntly?" he said to Walter.

"I have seen nothing of him," answered the lieutenant;
"is there anything fresh up?"

"Nothing whatever," was the curt reply.

They then conversed for a few moments in an undertone,
and I could see that Walter by his gesture gave a negative
answer to some question which the mate had asked him.
"Send me the boatswain, Walter," said Curtis aloud as the
lieutenant moved away.

The boatswain immediately appeared, and another con-
versation was carried on in whispers. The man repeatedly
shook his head as he replied to Curtis's inquiries, and then,
in obedience to orders, called the men who were on watch,
and made them plentifully water the tarpauling that covered
the great hatchway.

Curious to fathom the mystery I went up to Curtis and
began to talk with him upon ordinary topics, hoping that
he would himself introduce the subject that was uppermost
in my mind; finding, however, that he did not allude to it, I
asked him point blank:

"What was the matter in the night, Curtis?"

He looked at me steadily, but made no reply.

"What was it?" I repeated. "M. Letourneur and my-
self were both of us disturbed by a very unusual commotion
overhead."

"Oh, a mere nothing," he said at length; "the man at
the helm had made a false move, and we had to pipe hands
to brace the ship a bit; but it was soon all put to rights. It
was nothing, nothing at all."

I said no more; but I can not resist the impression that
Robert Curtis has not acted with me in his usual straight-
forward manner.


CHAPTER VIII
FIRE ON BOARD

OCTOBER 15 to October 18. -- The wind is still in the
northeast. There is no change in the Chancellor's course,
and to an unprejudiced eye all would appear to be going on
as usual. But I have an uneasy consciousness that some-
thing is not quite right. Why should the hatchways be so
hermetically closed as though a mutinous crew was im-
prisoned between decks? I can not help thinking too that
there is something in the sailors so constantly standing in
groups and breaking off their talk so suddenly whenever we
approach; and several times I have caught the word
"hatches" which arrested M. Letourneur's attention on the
night of the disturbance.

On the 15th, while I was walking on the forecastle, I over-
heard one of the sailors, a man named Owen, say to his
mates:

"Now I just give you all warning that I am not going
to wait until the last minute. Everyone for himself, say I."

"Why, what do you mean to do?" asked Jynxstrop, the
cook.

"Pshaw!" said Owen, "do you suppose that longboats
were only made for porpoises?"

Something at that moment occurred to interrupt the con-
versation, and I heard no more. It occurred to me whether
there was not some conspiracy among the crew, of which
probably Curtis had already detected the symptoms. I am
quite aware that some sailors are most rebelliously disposed,
and required to be ruled with a rod of iron.

Yesterday and to-day I have observed Curtis remonstrat-
ing somewhat vehemently with Captain Huntly, but there
is no obvious result arising from their interviews; the cap-
tain apparently being bent upon some purpose, of which it
is only too manifest that the mate decidedly disapproves.

Captain Huntly is undoubtedly laboring under strong
nervous excitement; and M. Letourneur has more than once
remarked how silent he has become at meal-times; for al-
though Curtis continually endeavors to start some subject
of general interest, yet neither Mr. Falsten, Mr. Kear, nor
Mr. Ruby are the men to take it up, and consequently the
conversation flags hopelessly, and soon drops. The pas-
sengers too are now, with good cause, beginning to murmur
at the length of the voyage, and Mr. Kear, who considers
that the very elements ought to yield to his convenience, lets
the captain know by his consequential and haughty manner
that he holds him responsible for the delay.

During the course of yesterday the mate gave repeated
orders for the deck to be watered again and again, and al-
though as a general rule this is a business which is done, once
for all, in the early morning, the crew did not utter a word
of complaint at the additional work thus imposed upon them.
The tarpaulins on the hatches have thus been kept con-
tinually wet, so that their close and heavy texture is rendered
quite impervious to the air. The Chancellor's pumps afford
a copious supply of water, so that I should not suppose that
even the daintiest and most luxurious craft belonging to an
aristocratic yacht club was ever subject to a more thorough
scouring. I tried to reconcile myself to the belief that it
was the high temperature of the tropical regions upon which
we are entering, that rendered such extra sousings a neces-
sity, and recalled to my recollection how, during the night
of the 13th, I had found the atmosphere below deck so
stifling, that in spite of the heavy swell I was obliged to open
the porthole of my cabin, on the starboard side, to get a
breath of air.

This morning at daybreak I went on deck. The sun had
scarcely risen, and the air was fresh and cool, in strange con-
trast to the heat which below the poop had been quite op-
pressive. The sailors as usual were washing the deck. A
great sheet of water, supplied continuously by the pumps,
was rolling in tiny wavelets, and escaping now to starboard,
now to larboard through the scupper-holes. After watch-
ing the men for a while as they ran about bare-footed, I
could not resist the desire to join them, so taking off my
shoes and stockings, I proceeded to dabble in the flowing
water.

Great was my amazement to find the deck perfectly hot to
my feet! Curtis heard my exclamation of surprise, and be-
fore I could put my thoughts into words, said:

"Yes! there is fire on board!"


CHAPTER IX
CURTIS EXPLAINS THE SITUATION

OCTOBER 19. -- Everything, then, is clear. The uneas-
iness of the crew, their frequent conferences, Owen's mys-
terious words, the constant scourings of the deck and the
oppressive heat of the cabins which had been noticed even
by my fellow-passengers, all are explained.

After his grave communication, Curtis remained silent.
I shivered with a thrill of horror; a calamity the most ter-
rible that can befall a voyager stared me in the face, and it
was some seconds before I could recover sufficient com-
posure to inquire when the fire was first discovered.

"Six days ago," replied the mate.

"Six days ago!" I exclaimed; "why, then, it was that
night."

"Yes," he said, interrupting me; "it was the night you
heard the disturbance upon deck. The men on watch no-
ticed a slight smoke issuing from the large hatchway and
immediately called Captain Huntly and myself. We found
beyond all doubt, that the cargo was on fire, and what was
worse, that there was no possibility of getting at the seat of
the combustion. What could we do? Why, we took the
only precaution that was practicable under the circumstances,
and resolved most carefully to exclude every breath of air
from penetrating into the hold. For some time I hoped that
we had been successful. I thought that the fire was stifled;
but during the last three days there is every reason to make
us know that it has been gaining strength. Do what we
will, the deck gets hotter and hotter, and unless it were kept
constantly wet, it would be unbearable to the feet. But I
am glad, Mr. Kazallon," he added; "that you have made
the discovery. It is better that you should know it." I
listened in silence. I was now fully aroused to the gravity of
the situation and thoroughly comprehended how we were in
the very face of a calamity which it seemed that no human
power could avert.

"Do you know what has caused the fire?" I presently
inquired.

"It probably arose," he answered, "from the sponta-
neous combustion of the cotton. The case is rare, but it is
far from unknown. Unless the cotton is perfectly dry when
it is shipped, its confinement in a damp or ill-ventilated hold
will sometimes cause it to ignite; and I have no doubt it is
this that has brought about our misfortune."

"But after all," I said, "the cause matters very little.
Is there no remedy? Is there nothing to be done?"

"Nothing, Mr. Kazallon," he said. "As I told you be-
fore, we have adopted the only possible measure within our
power to check the fire. At one time I thought of knock-
ing a hole in the ship's timbers just on her water-line, and
letting in just as much water as the pumps could afterward
get rid of again; but we found the combustion was right in
the middle of the cargo and that we should be obliged to
flood the entire hold before we could get at the right place.
That scheme consequently was no good. During the night,
I had the deck bored in various places and water poured
down through the holes; but that again seemed of no use.
There is only one thing that can be done; we must persevere
in excluding most carefully every breath of outer air, so that
perhaps the conflagration, deprived of oxygen, may smoulder
itself out. That is our only hope."

"But, you say the fire is increasing?"

"Yes; and that shows that in spite of all our care there
is some aperture which we have not been able to discover,
by which, somehow or other, air gets into the hold."

"Have you ever heard of a vessel surviving such cir-
cumstances?" I asked.

"Yes, Mr. Kazallon," said Curtis; "it is not at all an
unusual thing for ships laden with cotton to arrive at Liver-
pool or Havre with a portion of their cargo consumed; and I
have myself known more than one captain run into port with
his deck scorching his very feet, and who, to save his vessel
and the remainder of his freight has been compelled to un-
load with the utmost expedition. But, in such cases, of
course the fire has been more or less under control through-
out the voyage; with us, it is increasing day by day, and I
tell you I am convinced there is an aperture somewhere
which has escaped our notice."

"But would it not be advisable for us to retrace our
course, and make for the nearest land?"

"Perhaps it would," he answered. "Walter and I, and
the boatswain, are going to talk the matter over seriously
with the captain to-day. But, between ourselves, I have
taken the responsibility upon myself; I have already
changed the tack to the southwest; we are now straight be-
fore the wind, and consequently we are sailing toward the
coast."

"I need hardly ask," I added; "whether any of the other
passengers are at all aware of the imminent danger in which
we are placed."

"None of them," he said; "not in the least; and I hope
you will not enlighten them.  We don't want terrified
women and cowardly men to add to our embarrassment; the
crew are under orders to keep a strict silence on the subject.
Silence is indispensable."

I promised to keep the matter a profound secret, as I
fully entered into Curtis's views as to the absolute necessity
for concealment.


CHAPTER X
PICRATE OF POTASH ON BOARD

OCTOBER 20 and 21. -- The Chancellor is now crowded
with all the canvas she can carry, and at times her topmasts
threaten to snap with the pressure. But Curtis is ever on
the alert; he never leaves his post beside the man at the
helm, and without compromising the safety of the vessel, he
contrives, by tacking to the breeze, to urge her on at her
utmost speed.

All day long on the 20th the passengers were assembled
on the poop. Evidently they found the heat of the cabins
painfully oppressive, and most of them lay stretched upon
benches and quietly enjoyed the gentle rolling of the vessel.
The increasing heat of the deck did not reveal itself to
their well-shod feet, and the constant scouring of the boards
did not excite any suspicion in their torpid minds. M.
Letourneur, it is true, did express his surprise that the crew
of an ordinary merchant vessel should be distinguished by
such extraordinary cleanliness; but as I replied to him in
a very casual tone, he passed no further remark. I could
not help regretting that I had given Curtis my pledge of
silence, and longed intensely to communicate the melancholy
secret to the energetic Frenchman; for at times when I re-
flect upon the eight-and-twenty victims who may probably,
only too soon, be a prey to the relentless flames, my heart
seems ready to burst.

The important consultation between captain, mate, lieuten-
ant and boatswain has taken place. Curtis has confided the
result to me. He says that Huntly, the captain, is com-
pletely demoralized; he has lost all power and energy; and
practically leaves the command of the ship to him. It is
now certain the fire is beyond control, and that sooner or
later it will burst out in full violence. The temperature of
the crew's quarters has already become almost unbearable.
One solitary hope remains; it is that we may reach the shore
before the final catastrophe occurs. The Lesser Antilles
are the nearest land; and although they are some five or
six hundred miles away, if the wind remains northeast there
is yet a chance of reaching them in time.

Carrying royals and studding-sails, the Chancellor during
the last four-and-twenty hours has held a steady course. M.
Letourneur is the only one of all the passengers who has re-
marked the change of tack; Curtis, however, has set all
speculation on his part at rest by telling him that he wanted
to get ahead of the wind, and that he was tacking to the west
to catch a favorable current.

To-day, the 21st, all has gone on as usual; and as far as
the observation of the passengers has reached, the ordinary
routine has been undisturbed. Curtis indulges the hope
even yet that by excluding the air the fire may be stifled be-
fore it ignites the general cargo; he has hermetically closed
every accessible aperture, and has even taken the precaution
of plugging the orifices of the pumps, under the impression
that their suction-tubes, running as they do to the bottom of
the hold, may possibly be channels for conveying some
molecules of air. Altogether, he considers it a good sign
that the combustion has not betrayed itself by some external
issue of smoke.

The day would have passed without any incident worth
recording, if I had not chanced to overhear a fragment of
a conversation which demonstrated that our situation,
hitherto precarious enough, had now become most appalling.

As I was sitting on the poop, two of my fellow-passengers,
Falsten, the engineer, and Ruby, the merchant, whom I had
observed to be often in company, were engaged in conversa-
tion almost close to me. What they said was evidently not
intended for my hearing, but my attention was directed to-
ward them by some very emphatic gestures of dissatisfaction
on the part of Falsten, and I could not forbear listening to
what followed.

"Preposterous! shameful!" exclaimed Falsten; "nothing
could be more imprudent."

"Pooh! pooh!" replied Ruby, "it's all right; it is not the
first time I have done it."

"But don't you know that any shock at any time might
cause an explosion?"

"Oh, it's all properly secured," said Ruby, "tight enough;
I have no fears on that score, Mr. Falsten."

"But why," asked Falsten, "did you not inform the cap-
tain?"

"Just because if I had informed him, he would not have
taken the case on board."

The wind dropped for a few seconds; and for a brief in-
terval I could not catch what passed; but I could see that
Falsten continued to remonstrate, while Ruby answered by
shrugging his shoulders. At length I heard Falsten say.

"Well, at any rate, the captain must be informed of this,
and the package shall be thrown overboard. I don't want
to be blown up."

I started. To what could the engineer be alluding? Evi-
dently he had not the remotest suspicion that the cargo was
already on fire. In another moment the words "picrate of
potash" brought me to my feet, and with an involuntary
impulse I rushed up to Ruby, and seized him by the shoulder.

"Is there picrate of potash on board?" I almost shrieked.

"Yes," said Falsten, "a case containing thirty pounds."

"Where is it?" I cried.

"Down in the hold, with the cargo."


CHAPTER XI
THE PASSENGERS DISCOVER THEIR DANGER

WHAT my feelings were I cannot describe; but it was
hardly in terror so much as with a kind of resignation that
I made my way to Curtis on the forecastle, and made him
aware that the alarming character of our situation was now
complete, as there was enough explosive matter on board to
blow up a mountain. Curtis received the information as
coolly as it was delivered, and after I had made him ac-
quainted with all the particulars said, "Not a word of this
must be mentioned to anyone else, Mr. Kazallon. Where is
Ruby, now?"

"On the poop," I said.

"Will you then come with me, sir?"

Ruby and Falsten were sitting just as I had left them.
Curtis walked straight up to Ruby, and asked him whether
what he had been told was true.

"Yes, quite true," said Ruby, complacently, thinking that
the worst that could befall him would be that he might be
convicted of a little smuggling.

I observed that Curtis was obliged for a moment or two
to clasp his hands tightly together behind his back to pre-
vent himself from seizing the unfortunate passenger by the
throat; but suppressing his indignation, he proceeded quietly,
though sternly, to interrogate him about the facts of the
case. Ruby only confirmed what I had already told him.
With characteristic Anglo-Saxon incautiousness he had
brought on board, with the rest of his baggage, a case con-
taining no less than thirty pounds of picrate, and had allowed
the explosive matter to be stowed in the hold with as little
compunction as a Frenchman would feel in smuggling a
single bottle of wine. He had not informed the captain of
the dangerous nature of the contents of the package, because
he was perfectly aware that he would have been refused per-
mission to bring the package on board.

"Anyway," he said, with a shrug of his shoulders, "you
can't hang me for it; and if the package gives you so much
concern, you are quite at liberty to throw it into the sea.
My luggage is insured."

I was beside myself with fury; and not being endowed
with Curtis's reticence and self-control, before he could in-
terfere to stop me, I cried out:

"You fool! don't you know that there is fire on board?"

In an instant I regretted my words. Most earnestly I
wished them unuttered. But it was too late -- their effect
upon Ruby was electrical. He was paralyzed with terror;
his limbs stiffened convulsively; his eye was dilated; he
gasped for breath, and was speechless. All of a sudden he
threw up his arms, and, as though he momentarily expected
an explosion, he darted down from the poop, and paced
frantically up and down the deck, gesticulating like a mad-
man, and shouting:

"Fire on board! Fire! Fire!"

On hearing the outcry, all the crew, supposing that the
fire had now in reality broken out, rushed on deck; the rest
of the passengers soon joined them, and the scene that ensued
was one of the utmost confusion. Mrs. Kear fell down
senseless on the deck, and her husband, occupied in looking
after himself, left her to the tender mercies of Miss Herbey.
Curtis endeavored to silence Ruby's ravings, whilst I, in as
few words as I could, made M. Letourneur aware of the
extent to which the cargo was on fire. The father's first
thought was for Andre, but the young man preserved an ad-
mirable composure, and begged his father not to be alarmed,
as the danger was not immediate. Meanwhile the sailors
had loosened all the tacklings of the long-boat, and were pre-
paring to launch it, when Curtis's voice was heard peremp-
torily bidding them to desist; he assured them that the
fire had made no further progress; that Mr. Ruby had been
unduly excited and not conscious of what he had said; and
he pledged his word that when the right moment should ar-
rive he would allow them all to leave the ship; but that mo-
ment, he said, had not yet come.

At the sound of a voice which they had learned to honor
and respect, the crew paused in their operations, and the
long-boat remained suspended in its place. Fortunately,
even Ruby himself in the midst of his ravings, had not
dropped a word about the picrate that had been deposited
in the hold; for although the mate had a power over the
sailors that Captain Huntly had never possessed, I feel cer-
tain that if the true state of the case had been known, noth-
ing on earth would have prevented some of them, in their
consternation, from effecting an escape. As it was, only
Curtis, Falsten, and myself were cognizant of the terrible
secret.

As soon as order was restored, the mate and I joined
Falsten on the poop, where he had remained throughout the
panic, and where we found him with folded arms, deep in
thought, as it might be, solving some hard mechanical prob-
lem. He promised, at my request, that he would reveal
nothing of the new danger to which we were exposed
through Ruby's imprudence. Curtis himself took the re-
sponsibility of informing Captain Huntly of our critical
situation.

In order to insure complete secrecy, it was necessary to
secure the person of the unhappy Ruby, who, quite beside
himself, continued to rave up and down the deck with the
incessant cry of "Fire! fire!" Accordingly Curtis gave or-
ders to some of his men to seize him and gag him; and
before he could make any resistance the miserable man was
captured and safely lodged in confinement in his own cabin.


CHAPTER XII
CURTIS BECOMES CAPTAIN

OCTOBER 22. -- Curtis has told the captain everything; for
he persists in ostensibly recognizing him as his superior
officer, and refuses to conceal from him our true situation.
Captain Huntly received the communication in perfect
silence, and merely passing his hand across his forehead as
though to banish some distressing thought, re-entered his
cabin without a word.

Curtis, Lieutenant Walter, Falsten, and myself have been
discussing the chances of our safety, and I am surprised to
find with how much composure we can all survey our anx-
ious predicament.

"There is no doubt," said Curtis, "that we must abandon
all hope of arresting the fire; the heat toward the bow has
already become well-nigh unbearable, and the time must
come when the flames will find a vent through the deck.
If the sea is calm enough for us to make use of the boats,
well and good; we shall of course get quit of the ship as
quietly as we can; if, on the other hand the weather should
be adverse, or the wind be boisterous, we must stick to our
place, and contend with the flames to the very last; perhaps,
after all, we shall fare far better with the fire as a declared
enemy than as a hidden one."

Falsten and I agreed with what he said, and I pointed out
to him that he had quite overlooked the fact of there being
thirty pounds of explosive matter in the hold.

"No," he gravely replied, "I have not forgotten it, but it
is a circumstance of which I do not trust myself to think.
I dare not run the risk of admitting air into the hold by
going down to search for the powder, and yet I know not at
what moment it may explode. No; it is a matter that I can-
not take at all into my reckoning; it must remain in higher
hands than mine."

We bowed our heads in a silence which was solemn. In
the present state of the weather, immediate flight was, we
knew, impossible.

After considerable pause, Mr. Falsten, as calmly as
though he were delivering some philosophic dogma, quietly
observed:

"The explosion, if I may use the formula of science, is
not necessary, but contingent."

"But tell me, Mr. Falsten," I asked, "is it possible for
picrate of potash to ignite without concussion?"

"Certainly it is," replied the engineer. "Under ordinary
circumstances, picrate of potash although not MORE inflam-
mable than common powder, yet possesses the SAME degree
of inflammability."

We now prepared to go on deck. As we left the saloon,
in which we had been sitting, Curtis seized my hand.

"Oh, Mr. Kazallon," he exclaimed, "if you only knew
the bitterness of the agony I feel at seeing this fine vessel
doomed to be devoured by flames, and at being so powerless
to save her." Then quickly recovering himself, he continued:
"But I am forgetting myself; you, if no other, must know
what I am suffering. It is all over now," he said more
cheerfully.

"Is our condition quite desperate?" I asked.

"It is just this," he answered deliberately, "we are over
a mine, and already the match has been applied to the train.
How long that train may be, 'tis not for me to say."

And with these words he left me.

The other passengers, in common with the crew, are still
in entire ignorance of the extremity of peril to which we are
exposed, although they are all aware that there is fire in the
hold. As soon as the fact was announced, Mr. Kear, after
communicating to Curtis his instructions that he thought he
should have the fire immediately extinguished, and intimat-
ing that he held him responsible for all contingencies that
might happen, retired to his cabin, where he has remained
ever since, fully occupied in collecting and packing together
the more cherished articles of his property and without the
semblance of a care or a thought for his unfortunate wife,
whose condition, in spite of her ludicrous complaints,
was truly pitiable. Miss Herbey, however, is unrelaxing in
her attentions, and the unremitted diligence with which
she fulfills her offices of duty, commands my highest ad-
miration.

OCTOBER 23. -- This morning, Captain Huntly sent for
Curtis into his cabin, and the mate has since made me ac-
quainted with what passed between them.

"Curtis," began the captain, his haggard eye betraying
only too plainly some mental derangement, "I am a sailor,
am I not?"

"Certainly, captain," was the prompt acquiescence of the
mate.

"I do not know how it is," continued the captain, "but
I seem bewildered; I can not recollect anything. Are we
not bound for Liverpool? Ah! yes! of course. And have
we kept a northeasterly direction since we left?"

"No, sir, according to your orders we have been sailing
southeast, and here we are in the tropics."

"And what is the name of the ship?"

"The Chancellor, sir."

"Yes, yes, the Chancellor, so it is. Well, Curtis, I really
can't take her back to the north. I hate the sea, the very
sight of it makes me ill, I would much rather not leave my
cabin."

Curtis went on to tell me how he had tried to persuade him
that with a little time and care he would soon recover his
indisposition, and feel himself again; but the captain had in-
terrupted him by saying:

"Well, well; we shall see by-and-by; but for the present
you must take this for my positive order; you must, from
this time, at once take the command of the ship, and act
just as if I were not on board. Under present circum-
stances, I can do nothing. My brain is all in a whirl, you
can not tell what I am suffering;" and the unfortunate man
pressed both his hands convulsively against his forehead.

"I weighed the matter carefully for a moment," added
Curtis, "and seeing what his condition too truly was, I ac-
quiesced in all that he required and withdrew, promising him
that all his orders should be obeyed."

After hearing these particulars, I could not help remark-
ing how fortunate it was that the captain had resigned of
his own accord, for although he might not be actually in-
sane, it was very evident that his brain was in a very morbid
condition.

"I succeeded him at a very critical moment," said Curtis
thoughtfully; "but I shall endeavor to do my duty."

A short time afterward he sent for his boatswain and or-
dered him to assemble the crew at the foot of the main-mast.
As soon as the men were together, he addressed them very
calmly, but very firmly.

"My men," he said, "I have to tell you that Captain
Huntly, on account of the dangerous situation in which cir-
cumstances have placed us, and for other reasons known to
myself, has thought right to resign his command to me.
From this time forward, I am captain of this vessel."

Thus quietly and simply was the change effected, and we
have the satisfaction of knowing that the Chancellor is now
under the command of a conscientious, energetic man, who
will shirk nothing that he believes to be for our common
good. M. Letourneur, Andre, Mr. Falsten, and myself im-
mediately offered him our best wishes, in which Lieutenant
Walter and the boatswain most cordially joined.

The ship still holds her course southwest, and Curtis
crowds on all sail and makes as speedily as possible for the
nearest of the Lesser Antilles.


CHAPTER XIII
BETWEEN FIRE AND WATER

OCTOBER 24 to 29. -- For the last five days the sea has
been very heavy, and although the Chancellor sails with wind
and wave in her favor, yet her progress is considerably im-
peded. Here on board this veritable fire-ship I cannot help
contemplating with a longing eye this vast ocean that sur-
rounds us. The water supply should be all we need.

"Why not bore the deck?" I said to Curtis. "Why not
admit the water by tons into the hold? What could be the
harm? The fire would be quenched; and what would be
easier than to pump the water out again?"

"I have already told you, Mr. Kazallon," said Curtis,
"that the very moment we admit the air, the flames will rush
forth to the very top of the masts. No; we must have cour-
age and patience; we must wait. There is nothing whatever
to be done, except to close every aperture."

The fire continued to progress even more rapidly than we
had hitherto suspected. The heat gradually drove the pas-
sengers nearly all on deck, and the two stern cabins, lighted,
as I said, by their windows in the aft-board were the only
quarters below that were inhabitable. Of these Mrs. Kear
occupied one, and Curtis reserved the other for Ruby, who,
a raving maniac, had to be kept rigidly under restraint. I
went down occasionally to see him, but invariably found him
in a state of abject terror, uttering horrible shrieks, as
though possessed with the idea that he was being scorched
by the most excruciating heat.

Once or twice, too, I looked in upon the ex-captain. He
was always calm and spoke quite rationally on any subject
except his own profession; but in connection with that he
prated away the merest nonsense. He suffered greatly, but
steadily declined all my offers of attention, and pertina-
ciously refused to leave his cabin.

To-day, an acrid, nauseating smoke made its way through
the panelings that partition off the quarters of the crew. At
once Curtis ordered the partition to be enveloped in wet tar-
paulin, but the fumes penetrated even this, and filled the
whole neighborhood of the ship's bows with a reeking vapor
that was positively stifling. As we listened, too, we could
hear a dull rumbling sound, but we were as mystified as ever
to comprehend where the air could have entered that was
evidently fanning the flames. Only too certainly, it was
now becoming a question not of days nor even of hours
before we must be prepared for the final catastrophe. The
sea was still running high, and escape by the boats was
plainly impossible. Fortunately, as I have said, the main-
mast and the mizzen are of iron; otherwise the great heat
at their base would long ago have brought them down and
our chances of safety would have been very much imperiled;
but by crowding on sail the Chancellor in the full northeast
wind continued to make her way with undiminished speed.

It is now a fortnight since the fire was first discovered,
and the proper working of the ship has gradually become a
more and more difficult matter. Even with thick shoes any
attempt to walk upon deck up to the forecastle was soon im-
practicable, and the poop, simply because its floor is elevated
somewhat above the level of the hold, is now the only avail-
able standing-place. Water began to lose its effect upon
the scorched and shriveling planks; the resin oozed out from
the knots in the wood, the seams burst open, and the tar,
melted by the heat, followed the rollings of the vessel, and
formed fantastic patterns about the deck.

Then to complete our perplexity, the wind shifted sud-
denly round to the northwest, whence it blew a perfect hur-
ricane. To no purpose did Curtis do everything in his
power to bring the ship ahull; every effort was in vain; the
Chancellor could not bear her trysail, so there was nothing
to be done but to let her go with the wind, and drift further
and further from the land for which we are longing so
eagerly.

To-day, the 29th, the tempest seemed to reach its height;
the waves appeared to us mountains high, and dashed the
spray most violently across the deck. A boat could not live
a moment in such a sea.

Our situation is terrible. We all wait in silence, some
few on the forecastle, the great proportion of us on the
poop. As for the picrate, for the time we have quite for-
gotten its existence; indeed it might almost seem as though
its explosion would come as a relief, for no catastrophe, how-
ever terrible, could far exceed the torture of our suspense.

While he had still the remaining chance, Curtis rescued
from the store-room such few provisions as the heat of the
compartment allowed him to obtain; and a lot of cases of
salt meat and biscuits, a cask of brandy, some barrels of
fresh water, together with some sails and wraps, a compass
and other instruments are now lying packed in a mass all
ready for prompt removal to the boats whenever we shall be
obliged to leave the ship.

About eight o'clock in the evening, a noise is heard, dis-
tinct even above the raging of the hurricane. The panels of
the deck are upheaved, and volumes of black smoke issue up-
ward as if from a safety-valve. A universal consternation
seizes one and all; we must leave the volcano which is about
to burst beneath our feet. The crew run to Curtis for or-
ders. He hesitates; looks first at the huge and threatening
waves; looks then at the boats. The long-boat is there, sus-
pended right along the center of the deck; but it is impos-
sible to approach it now; the yawl, however, hoisted on the
starboard side, and the whale-boat suspended aft, are still
available. The sailors make frantically for the yawl.

"Stop, stop," shouts Curtis; "do you mean to cut off our
last and only chance of safety? Would you launch a boat
in such a sea as this?"

A few of them, with Owen at their head, give no heed to
what he says. Rushing to the poop, and seizing a cutlass,
Curtis shouts again:

"Touch the tackling of the davit, one of you; only touch
it, and I'll cleave your skull."

Awed by his determined manner, the men retire, some
clambering into the shrouds, while others mount to the very
top of the masts.

At eleven o'clock, several loud reports are heard, caused
by the bursting asunder of the partitions of the hold. Clouds
of smoke issue from the front, followed by a long tongue of
lambent flame that seems to encircle the mizzen-mast. The
fire now reaches to the cabin of Mrs. Kear, who, shrieking
wildly, is brought on deck by Miss Herbey. A moment
more, and Silas Huntly makes his appearance, his face all
blackened with the grimy smoke; he bows to Curtis, as he
passes, and then proceeds in the calmest manner to mount
the aft-shrouds, and installs himself at the very top of the
mizzen.

The sight of Huntly recalls to my recollection the prisoner
still below, and my first impulse is to rush to the staircase
and do what I can to set him free. But the maniac has al-
ready eluded his confinement, and with singed hair and his
clothes already alight, rushes upon deck. Like a sal-
amander he passes across the burning deck with unscathed
feet, and glides through the stifling smoke with unchoked
breath. Not a sound escapes his lips.

Another loud report; the long-boat is shivered into frag-
ments; the middle panel bursts the tarpaulin that covered it,
and a stream of fire, free at length from the restraint that
had held it, rises half-mast high.

"The picrate! the picrate!" shrieks the madman; "we
shall all be blown up! the picrate will blow us all up."

And in an instant, before we can get near him, he has
buried himself, through the open hatchway, down into the
fiery furnace below.


CHAPTER XIV
BREAKERS TO STARBOARD!

OCTOBER 20. -- Night. -- The scene, as night came on, was
terrible indeed. Notwithstanding the desperateness of our
situation, however, there was not one of us so paralyzed by
fear, but that we fully realized the horror of it all.

Poor Ruby, indeed, is lost and gone, but his last words
were productive of serious consequences. The sailors
caught his cry of "Picrate, picrate!" and being thus for the
first time made aware of the true nature of their peril, they
resolved at every hazard to accomplish their escape. Beside
themselves with terror, they either did not, or would not, see
that no boat could brave the tremendous waves that were
raging around, and accordingly they made a frantic rush to-
ward the yawl. Curtis again made a vigorous endeavor to
prevent them, but this time all in vain; Owen urged them on,
and already the tackling was loosened, so that the boat was
swung over to the ship's side. For a moment it hung sus-
pended in mid-air, and then, with a final effort from the
sailors, it was quickly lowered into the sea. But scarcely
had it touched the water, when it was caught by an enor-
mous wave which, recoiling with resistless violence, dashed
it to atoms against the Chancellor's side.

The men stood aghast; they were dumbfounded. Long-
boat and yawl both gone, there was nothing now remaining
to us but a small whale-boat. Not a word was spoken;
not a sound was heard but the hoarse whistling of the wind,
and the mournful roaring of the flames. From the center
of the ship, which was hollowed out like a furnace, there
issued a column of sooty vapor that ascended to the sky.
All the passengers, and several of the crew, took refuge in
the aft-quarters of the poop. Mrs. Kear was lying sense-
less on one of the hen-coops, with Miss Herbey sitting pas-
sively at her side; M. Letourneur held his son tightly clasped
to his bosom. I saw Falsten calmly consult his watch, and
note down the time in his memorandum-book, but I was
far from sharing his composure, for I was overcome by a
nervous agitation that I could not suppress.

As far as we knew, Lieutenant Walter, the boatswain,
and such of the crew as were not with us, were safe in the
bow; but it was impossible to tell how they were faring, be-
cause the sheet of fire intervened like a curtain, and cut off
all communication between stem and stern.

I broke the dismal silence, saying, "All over now Curtis."

"No, sir, not yet," he replied, "now that the panel is
open we will set to work, and pour water with all our might
down into the furnace, and may be, we shall put it out, even
yet."

"But how can you work your pumps while the deck is
burning? and how can you get at your men beyond that
sheet of flame?"

He made no answer to my impetuous questions, and find-
ing he had nothing more to say, I repeated that it was all
over now.

After a pause, he said, "As long as a plank of the ship
remains to stand on, Mr. Kazallon, I shall not give up my
hope."

But the conflagration raged with redoubled fury, the sea
around us was lighted with a crimson glow, and the clouds
above shone with a lurid glare. Long jets of fire darted
across the hatchways, and we were forced to take refuge
on the taffrail at the extreme end of the poop. Mrs. Kear
was laid in the whale-boat that hung from the stern. Miss
Herbey persisting to the last in retaining her post by her
side.

No pen could adequately portray the horrors of this fear-
ful night. The Chancellor under bare poles, was driven,
like a gigantic fire-ship with frightful velocity across the
raging ocean; her very speed as it were, making common
cause with the hurricane to fan the fire that was consuming
her. Soon there could be no alternative between throwing
ourselves into the sea, or perishing in the flames.

But where, all this time, was the picrate? Perhaps, after
all, Ruby had deceived us and there was no volcano, such as
we dreaded, below our feet.

At half-past eleven, when the tempest seems at its very
height, there is heard a peculiar roar distinguishable even
above the crash of the elements. The sailors in an instant
recognize its import.

"Breakers to starboard!" is the cry.

Curtis leaps on to the netting, casts a rapid glance at the
snow-white billows, and turning to the helmsman shouts
with all his might, "Starboard the helm!"

But it is too late. There is a sudden shock; the ship is
caught up by an enormous wave; she rises upon her beam
ends; several times she strikes the ground; the mizzen-mast
snaps short off level with the deck, falls into the sea, and the
Chancellor is motionless.


CHAPTER XV
SHIPWRECKED

THE night of the 29th continued. -- It was not yet mid-
night; the darkness was most profound, and we could see
nothing. But was it probable that we had stranded on the
coast of America?

Very shortly after the ship had thus come to a stand-still
a clanking of chains was heard proceeding from her bows.

"That is well," said Curtis; "Walter and the boatswain
have cast both the anchors. Let us hope they will hold."

Then, clinging to the netting, he clambered along the
starboard side, on which the ship had heeled, as far as the
flames would allow him. He clung to the holdfasts of the
shrouds, and in spite of the heavy seas that dashed against
the vessel he maintained his position for a considerable time,
evidently listening to some sound that had caught his ear
in the midst of the tempest. In about a quarter of an hour
he returned to the poop.

"Heaven be praised! " he said, "the water is coming in,
and perhaps may get the better of the fire."

"True," said I, "but what then?"

"That," he replied, "is a question for bye-and-bye. We
can think now only of the present."

Already I fancied that the violence of the flames was
somewhat abated, and that the two opposing elements were
in fierce contention. Some plank in the ship's side was
evidently stove in, admitting free passage for the waves.
But how, when the water had mastered the fire, should we
be able to master the water? Our natural course would be
to use the pumps, but these, in the very midst of the con-
flagration, were quite unavailable.

For three long hours, in anxious suspense, we watched,
and waited. Where we were we could not tell. One thing
alone was certain; the tide was ebbing beneath us, and the
waves were relaxing in their violence. Once let the fire be
extinguished, and then, perhaps, there would be room to
hope that the next high tide would set us afloat.

Toward half-past four in the morning the curtain of fire
and smoke, which had shut off communication between the
two extremities of the ship, became less dense, and we could
faintly distinguish that party of the crew who had taken
refuge in the forecastle; and before long, although it was
impracticable to step upon the deck, the lieutenant and the
boatswain contrived to clamber over the gunwale, along the
rails, and joined Curtis on the poop.

Here they held a consultation, to which I was admitted.
They were all of opinion that nothing could be done until
daylight should give us something of an idea of our actual
position. If we then found that we were near the shore,
we would, weather permitting, endeavor to land, either in
the boat or upon a raft. If, on the other hand, no land
were in sight, and the Chancellor were ascertained to be
stranded on some isolated reef, all we could do would be
to get her afloat, and put her into condition for reaching the
nearest coast. Curtis told us that it was long since he had
been able to take any observation of latitude, but there was
no doubt the northwest wind had driven us far to the south;
and he thought, as he was ignorant of the existence of any
reef in this part of the Atlantic, that it was just possible
that we had been driven on to the coast of some portion of
South America.

I reminded him that we were in momentary expectation
of an explosion, and suggested that it would be advisable to
abandon the ship and take refuge on the reef. But he
would not hear of such a proceeding, said that the reef
would probably be covered at high tide, and persisted in the
original resolution, that no decided action could be taken
before the daylight appeared.

I immediately reported this decision of the captain to my
fellow-passengers. None of them seemed to realize the
new danger to which the Chancellor may be exposed by be-
ing cast upon an unknown reef, hundreds of miles it may be
from land. All are for the time possessed with one idea,
one hope; and that is, that the fire may now be quenched
and the explosion averted.

And certainly their hopes seem in a fair way of being ful-
filled. Already the raging flames that poured forth from
the hatches have given place to dense black smoke, and al-
though occasionally some fiery streaks dart across the dusky
fumes, yet they are instantly extinguished. The waves are
doing what pumps and buckets could never have effected;
by their inundation they are steadily stifling the fire which
was as steadily spreading to the whole bulk of the 1,700
bales of cotton.


CHAPTER XVI
SILAS HUNTLY RESCUED FROM THE WAVES

OCTOBER 30. -- At the first gleam of daylight we eagerly
scanned the southern and western horizons, but the morn-
ing mists limited our view. Land was nowhere to be seen.
The tide was now almost at its lowest ebb, and the color
of the few peaks of rock that jutted up around us showed
that the reef on which we had stranded was of basaltic
formation. There were now only about six feet of water
around the Chancellor, though with a full freight she draws
about fifteen. It was remarkable how far she had been
carried on to the shelf of rock, but the number of times that
she had touched the bottom before she finally ran aground
left us no doubt that she had been lifted up and borne along
on the top of an enormous wave. She now lies with her
stern considerably higher than her bows, a position which
renders walking upon the deck anything but an easy matter,
moreover as the tide receded she heeled over so much to lar-
board that at one time Curtis feared she would altogether
capsize; that fear, however, since the tide has reached its
lowest mark, has happily proved groundless.

At six o'clock some violent blows were felt against the
ship's side, and at the same time a voice was distinguished,
shouting loudly, "Curtis! Curtis!" Following the direc-
tion of the cries we saw that the broken mizzen-mast was
being washed against the vessel, and in the dusky morning
twilight we could make out the figure of a man clinging to
the rigging. Curtis, at the peril of his life, hastened to
bring the man on board. It proved to be none other than
Silas Huntly, who, after being carried overboard with the
mast, had thus, almost by a miracle, escaped a watery grave.
Without a word of thanks to his deliverer, the ex-captain,
passive, like an automaton, passed on and took his seat in
the most secluded corner of the poop. The broken mizzen
may, perhaps, be of service to us at some future time, and
with that idea it has been rescued from the waves and lashed
securely to the stern.

By this time it was light enough to see for a distance of
three miles round; but as yet nothing could be discerned to
make us think that we were near a coast. The line of
breakers ran for about a mile from southwest to northeast,
and two hundred fathoms to the north of the ship an ir-
regular mass of rocks formed a small islet. This islet rose
about fifty feet above the sea, and was consequently above
the level of the highest tides; while a sort of causeway,
available at low water, would enable us to reach the island,
if necessity required. But there the reef ended; beyond
it the sea again resumed its somber hue, betokening deep
water. In all probability, then, this was a solitary shoal,
unattached to a shore, and the gloom of a bitter disappoint-
ment began to weigh upon our spirits.

In another hour the mists had totally disappeared, and it
was broad daylight. I and M. Letourneur stood watching
Curtis as he continued eagerly to scan the western horizon.
Astonishment was written on his countenance; to him it
appeared perfectly incredible that, after our course for so
long had been due south from the Bermudas, no land should
be in sight. But not a speck, however minute, broke the
clearly-defined line that joined sea and sky. After a time
Curtis made his way along the netting to the shrouds, and
swung himself quickly up to the top of the mainmast. For
several minutes he remained there examining the open space
around, then seizing one of the backstays he glided down
and rejoined us on the poop.

"No land in sight," he said, in answer to our eager looks.

At this point Mr. Kear interposed, and in a gruff, ill-
tempered tone, asked Curtis where we were. Curtis replied
that he did not know.

"You don't know, sir? Then all I can say is that you
ought to know!" exclaimed the petroleum merchant.

"That may be, sir; but at present I am as ignorant of our
whereabouts as you are yourself," said Curtis.

"Well," said Mr. Kear, "just please to know that I
don't want to stay forever on your everlasting ship, so I
beg you will make haste and start off again."

Curtis condescended to make no other reply than a shrug
of the shoulders, and turning away he informed M. Letour-
neur and myself that if the sun came out he intended to take
its altitude and find out to what part of the ocean we had
been driven.

His next care was to distribute preserved meat and biscuit
among the passengers and crew already half fainting with
hunger and fatigue, and then he set to work to devise meas-
ures for setting the ship afloat.

The conflagration was greatly abated; no flames now ap-
peared, and although some black smoke still issued from the
interior, yet its volume was far less than before. The first
step was to discover how much water had entered the
hold. The deck was still too hot to walk upon; but after
two hours' irrigation the boards became sufficiently cool for
the boatswain to proceed to take some soundings, and he
shortly afterward announced that there were five feet of
water below. This the captain determined should not be
pumped out at present, as he wanted it thoroughly to do its
duty before he got rid of it.

The next subject for consideration was whether it would
be advisable to abandon the vessel, and to take refuge on
the reef. Curtis thought not; and the lieutenant and the
boatswain agreed with him. The chances of an explosion
were greatly diminished, as it had been ascertained that the
water had reached that part of the hold in which Ruby's
luggage had been deposited; while, on the other hand, in
the event of rough weather, our position even upon the most
elevated points of rock might be very critical. It was ac-
cordingly resolved that both passengers and crew were saf-
est on board.

Acting upon this decision we proceeded to make a kind
of encampment on the poop, and a few mattresses that were
rescued uninjured have been given up for the use of the
two ladies. Such of the crew as had saved their hammocks
have been told to place them under the forecastle where they
would have to stow themselves as best they could, their
ordinary quarters being absolutely uninhabitable.

Fortunately, although the store-room has been consider-
ably exposed to the heat, its contents are not very seriously
damaged, and all the barrels of water and the greater part
of the provisions are quite intact. The stock of spare sails,
which had been packed away in front, is also free from in-
jury. The wind has dropped considerably since the early
morning, and the swell in the sea is far less heavy. On
the whole our spirits are reviving and we begin to think we
may yet find a way out of our troubles.

M. Letourneur, his son, and I, have just had a long con-
versation about the ship's officers. We consider their con-
duct, under the late trying circumstances, to have been most
exemplary, and their courage, energy, and endurance to
have been beyond all praise. Lieutenant Walter, the boat-
swain, and Dowlas the carpenter have all alike distinguished
themselves, and made us feel that they are men to be relied
on. As for Curtis, words can scarcely be found to express
our admiration of his character; he is the same as he has
ever been, the very life of his crew, cheering them on by
word or gesture; finding an expedient for every difficulty,
and always foremost in every action.

The tide turned at seven this morning, and by eleven all
the rocks were submerged, none of them being visible ex-
cept the cluster of those which formed the rim of a small
and almost circular basin from 230 to 300 feet in diameter,
in the north angle of which the ship is lying. As the tide
rose the white breakers disappeared, and the sea, fortunately
for the Chancellor, was pretty calm; otherwise the dashing
of the waves against her sides, as she lies motionless, might
have been attended by serious consequences.

As might be supposed, the height of the water in the hold
increased with the tide from five feet to nine; but this was
rather a matter of congratulation, inasmuch as it sufficed
to inundate another layer of cotton.

At half-past eleven the sun, which had been behind the
clouds since ten o'clock, broke forth brightly. The captain,
who had already in the morning been able to calculate an
horary angle, now prepared to take the meridian altitude,
and succeeded at midday in making his observation most
satisfactorily. After retiring for a short time to calculate
the result, he returned to the poop and announced that we
are in lat. 18 deg. 5' N. and long. 45 deg. 53' W., but that the reef
on which we are aground is not marked on the charts. The
only explanation that can be given for the omission is that
the islet must be of recent formation, and has been caused
by some subterranean volcanic disturbance. But whatever
may be the solution of the mystery, here we are 800 miles
from land; for such, on consulting the map, we find to be
the actual distance to the coast of Guiana, which is the near-
est shore. Such is the position to which we have been
brought, in the first place, by Huntly's senseless obstinacy,
and, secondly, by the furious northwest gale.

Yet, after all, the captain's communication does not dis-
hearten us. As I said before, our spirits are reviving. We
have escaped the peril of fire; the fear of explosion is past
and gone: and oblivious of the fact that the ship with a
hold full of water is only too likely to founder when she
puts out to sea, we feel a confidence in the future that for-
bids us to despond.

Meanwhile Curtis prepares to do all that common sense
demands. He proposes, when the fire is quite extinguished,
to throw overboard the whole, or the greater portion of the
cargo, including, of course, the picrate; he will next plug
up the leak, and then, with a lightened ship, he will take ad-
vantage of the first high tide to quit the reef as speedily as
possible.


CHAPTER XVII
M. LETOURNEUR IS PESSIMISTIC

OCTOBER 30. -- Once again I talked to M. Letourneur about
our situation, and endeavored to animate him with the hope
that we should not be detained for long in our present pre-
dicament; but he could not be brought to take a very san-
guine view of our prospects.

"But surely," I protested, "it will not be difficult to
throw overboard a few hundred bales of cotton; two or
three days at most will suffice for that."

"Likely enough," he replied, "when the business is once
begun; but you must remember, Mr. Kazallon, that the very
heart of the cargo is still smoldering, and that it will still be
several days before anyone will be able to venture into the
hold. Then the leak, too, that has to be caulked; and, un-
less it is stopped up very effectually, we shall only be doomed
most certainly to perish at sea. Don't then, be deceiving
yourself; it must be three weeks at least before you can ex-
pect to put out to sea. I can only hope meanwhile that the
weather will continue propitious; it wouldn't take many
storms to knock the Chancellor, shattered as she is, com-
pletely into pieces."

Here, then, was the suggestion of a new danger to which
we were to be exposed; the fire might be extinguished, the
water might be got rid of by the pumps, but, after all, we
must be at the mercy of the wind and waves; and, although
the rocky island might afford a temporary refuge from the
tempest, what was to become of passengers and crew if the
vessel should be reduced to a total wreck? I made no
remonstrance, however, to this view of our case, but merely
asked M. Letourneur if he had confidence in Robert Curtis?

"Perfect confidence," he answered; "and I acknowledge
it most gratefully, as a providential circumstance, that Cap-
tain Huntly had given him the command in time. What-
ever man can do I know that Curtis will not leave undone to
extricate us from our dilemma."

Prompted by this conversation with M. Letourneur I
took the first opportunity of trying to ascertain from Curtis
himself how long he reckoned we should be obliged to re-
main upon the reef; but he merely replied, that it must de-
pend upon circumstances, and that he hoped the weather
would continue favorable. Fortunately the barometer is
rising steadily, and there is every sign of a prolonged calm.

Meantime Curtis is taking active measures for totally
extinguishing the fire. He is at no great pains to spare the
cargo, and as the bales that lie just above the level of the
water are still a-light he has resorted to the expedient of
thoroughly saturating the upper layers of the cotton, in
order that the combustion may be stifled between the mois-
ture descending from above and that ascending from below.
This scheme has brought the pumps once more into requisi-
tion. At present the crew are adequate to the task of work-
ing them, but I and some of our fellow-passengers are ready
to offer our assistance whenever it shall be necessary.

With no immediate demand upon our labor, we are
thrown upon our own resources for passing our time. M.
Letourneur, Andre, and myself, have frequent conversa-
tions; I also devote an hour or two to my diary. Falsten
holds little communication with any of us, but remains ab-
sorbed in his calculations, and amuses himself by tracing
mechanical diagrams with ground-plan, section, elevation,
all complete. It would be a happy inspiration if he could
invent some mighty engine that could set us all afloat again.
Mr. and Mrs. Kear, too, hold themselves aloof from their
fellow-passengers, and we are not sorry to be relieved from
the necessity of listening to their incessant grumbling; un-
fortunately, however, they carry off Miss Herbey with them,
so that we enjoy little or nothing of the young lady's society.
As for Silas Huntly, he has become a complete nonen-
tity; he exists, it is true, but merely, it would seem, to
vegetate.

Hobart, the steward, an obsequious, sly sort of fellow,
goes through his routine of duties just as though the vessel
were pursuing her ordinary course; and, as usual, is con-
tinually falling out with Jynxstrop, the cook, an impudent,
ill-favored negro, who interferes with the other sailors in
a manner which, I think, ought not to be allowed.

Since it appears likely that we shall have abundance of
time on our hands, I have proposed to M. Letourneur and
his son that we shall together explore the reef on which we
are stranded. It is not very probable that we shall be able
to discover much about the origin of this strange accumula-
tion of rocks, yet the attempt will at least occupy us for
some hours, and will relieve us from the monotony of our
confinement on board. Besides, as the reef is not marked in
any of the maps, I could not but believe that it would be
rendering a service to hydrography if we were to take an
accurate plan of the rocks, of which Curtis could afterward
verify the true position by a second observation made with a
closer precision than the one he has already taken.

M. Letourneur agrees to my proposal, Curtis has promised
to let us have the boat and some sounding-lines, and to allow
one of the sailors to accompany us; so to-morrow morning,
we hope to make our little voyage of investigation.


CHAPTER XVIII
WE EXPLORE THE REEF

OCTOBER 31 to November 5. -- Our first proceeding on
the morning of the 31st was to make the proposed tour of
the reef, which is about a quarter of a mile long. With
the aid of our sounding-lines we found that the water was
deep, right up to the very rocks, and that no shelving shores
prevented us coasting along them. There was not a shadow
of doubt as to the rock being of purely volcanic origin, up-
heaved by some mighty subterranean convulsion.   It is
formed of blocks of basalt, arranged in perfect order, of
which the regular prisms give the whole mass the effect of
being one gigantic crystal; and the remarkable transparency
of the sea enabled us plainly to observe the curious shafts
of the prismatic columns that support the marvelous sub-
structure.

"This is indeed a singular island," said M. Letourneur;
"evidently it is of quite recent origin."

"Yes, father," said Andre, "and I should think it has
been caused by a phenomenon similar to those which pro-
duced the Julia Island, off the coast of Sicily, or the group
of the Santorini, in the Grecian Archipelago. One could
almost fancy that it had been created expressly for the Chan-
cellor to strand upon."

"It is very certain," I observed, "that some upheaving
has lately taken place. This is by no means an unfrequented
part of the Atlantic, so that it is not at all likely that it could
have escaped the notice of sailors if it had been always in
existence; yet it is not marked even in the most modern
charts. We must try and explore it thoroughly and give
future navigators the benefit of our observations."

"But, perhaps, it will disappear as it came," said Andre.
"You are no doubt aware, Mr. Kazallon, that these volcanic
islands sometimes have a very transitory existence. Not im-
possibly, by the time it gets marked upon the maps it may no
longer be here."

"Never mind, my boy," answered his father, "it is bet-
ter to give warning of a danger that does not exist than
overlook one that does. I dare say the sailors will not
grumble much, if they don't find a reef where we have
marked one."

"No, I dare say not, father," said Andre, "and after all
this island is very likely as firm as a continent. However,
if it is to disappear, I expect Captain Curtis would be glad
to see it take its departure as soon as possible after he has
finished his repairs; it would save him a world of trouble
in getting his ship afloat."

"Why, what a fellow you are, Andre!" I said, laugh-
ing; "I believe you would like to rule Nature with a magic
wand, first of all, you would call up a reef from the depth
of the ocean to give the Chancellor time to extinguish her
flames, and then you would make it disappear just that the
ship might be free again."

Andre smiled; then, in a more serious tone, he expressed
his gratitude for the timely help that had been vouchsafed
us in our hour of need.

The more we examined the rocks that formed the base
of the little island, the more we became convinced that its
formation was quite recent. Not a mollusk, not a tuft of
seaweed was found clinging to the sides of the rocks; not a
germ had the wind carried to its surface, not a bird had
taken refuge amid the crags upon its summits. To a lover
of natural history, the spot did not yield a single point of
interest; the geologist alone would find subject of study in
the basaltic mass.

When we reached the southern point of the island I pro-
posed that we should disembark. My companions readily
assented, young Letourneur jocosely observing that if the
little island was destined to vanish, it was quite right that it
should first be visited by human beings. The boat was
accordingly brought alongside, and we set foot upon the
reef, and began to ascend the gradual slope that leads to its
highest elevation.

The walking was not very rough, and as Andre could get
along tolerably well without the assistance of an arm, he
led the way, his father and I following close behind. A
quarter of an hour sufficed to bring us to the loftiest point
in the islet, when we seated ourselves on the basaltic prism
that crowned its summit.

Andre took a sketch-book from his pocket, and proceeded
to make a drawing of the reef. Scarcely had he completed
the outline when his father exclaimed:

"Why, Andre, you have drawn a ham!"

"Something uncommonly like it, I confess," replied
Andre. "I think we had better ask Captain Curtis to let
us call our island Ham Rock."

"Good," said I; "though sailors will need to keep it at
a respectful distance, for they will scarcely find that their
teeth are strong enough to tackle it."

M. Letourneur was quite correct; the outline of the reef
as it stood clearly defined against the deep green water
resembled nothing so much as a fine York ham, of which
the little creek, where the Chancellor had been stranded,
corresponded to the hollow place above the knuckle. The
tide at this time was low, and the ship now lay heeled over
very much to the starboard side, the few points of rock that
emerged in the extreme south of the reef plainly marking the
narrow passage through which she had been forced before
she finally ran aground.

As soon as Andre had finished his sketch we descended
by a slope as gradual as that by which we had come up, and
made our way toward the west. We had not gone very far
when a beautiful grotto, perfect as an architectural struc-
ture, arrested our attention. M. Letourneur and Andre,
who have visited the Hebrides, pronounced it to be a
Fingal's cave in miniature; a Gothic chapel that might form
a fit vestibule for the cathedral cave of Staffa. The basaltic
rocks had cooled down into the same regular concentric
prisms; there was the same dark canopied roof with its in-
terstices filled up with its yellow lutings; the same precision
of outline in the prismatic angles, sharp as though chiseled
by a sculptor's hand; the same sonorous vibration of the air
across the basaltic rocks, of which the Gaelic poets have
feigned that the harps of the Fingal minstrelsy were made.
But whereas at Staffa the floor of the cave is always covered
with a sheet of water, here the grotto was beyond the reach
of all but the highest waves, while the prismatic shafts them-
selves formed quite a solid pavement.

After remaining nearly an hour in our newly-discovered
grotto we returned to the Chancellor, and communicated the
result of our explorations to Curtis, who entered the island
upon his chart, by the name Andre Letourneur had pro-
posed.

Since its discovery we have not permitted a day to pass
without spending some time in our Ham Rock grotto.
Curtis has taken an opportunity of visiting it, but he is too
preoccupied with other matters to have much interest to
spare for the wonders of nature. Falsten, too, came once
and examined the character of the rocks, knocking and
chipping them about with all the mercilessness of a geologist.
Mr. Kear would not trouble himself to leave the ship; and
although I asked his wife to join us in one of our excursions
she declined, upon the plea that the fatigue, as well as the
inconvenience of embarking in the boat, would be more than
she could bear.

Miss Herbey, only to thankful to escape even for an hour
from her capricious mistress, eagerly accepted M. Letour-
neur's invitation to pay a visit to the reef, but to her great
disappointment Mrs. Kear at first refused point-blank to
allow her to leave the ship. I felt intensely annoyed, and re-
solved to intercede in Miss Herbey's favor; and as I had
already rendered that self-indulgent lady sundry services
which she though she might probably be glad again to ac-
cept, I gained my point, and Miss Herbey has several times
been permitted to accompany us across the rocks, where
the young girl's delight at her freedom has been a pleasure
to behold.

Sometimes we fish along the shore, and then enjoy a
luncheon in the grotto, while the basalt columns vibrate like
harps to the breeze. This arid reef, little as it is, compared
with the cramped limits of the Chancellor's deck is like some
vast domain; soon there will be scarcely a stone with which
we are not familiar, scarcely a portion of its surface which
we have not trodden, and I am sure that when the hour of
departure arrives we shall leave it with regret.

In the course of conversation, Andre Letourneur one day
happened to say that he believed the island of Staffa be-
longed to the Macdonald family, who let it for the small
sum of L.12 a year.

"I suppose then," said Miss Herbey, "that we should
hardly get more than half-a-crown a year for our pet little
island."

"I don't think you would get a penny for it. Miss Herbey;
but are you thinking of taking a lease?" I said laughing.

"Not at present," she said; then added, with a half-sup-
pressed sigh, "and yet it is a place where I have seemed
to know what it is to be really happy."

Andre murmured some expression of assent, and we all
felt that there was something touching in the words of the
orphaned, friendless girl who had found her long-lost sense
of happiness on a lonely rock in the Atlantic.


CHAPTER XIX
THE CARGO UNLOADED

NOVEMBER 6 to November 15. -- For the first five days
after the Chancellor had run aground, there was a dense
black smoke continually rising from the hold; but it grad-
ually diminished until the 6th of November, when we might
consider that the fire was extinguished. Curtis, neverthe-
less, deemed it prudent to persevere in working the pumps,
which he did until the entire hull of the ship, right up to the
deck, had been completely inundated.

The rapidity, however, with which the water, at every re-
treat of the tide, drained off to the level of the sea, was an
indication that the leak must be of considerable magnitude;
and such, on investigation, proved to be the case. One of the
sailors, named Flaypole, dived one day at low water to ex-
amine the extent of the damage, and found that the hole was
not much less than four feet square, and was situated thirty
feet fore of the helm, and two feet above the rider of the
keel; three planks had been stove in by a sharp point of rock
and it was only a wonder that the violence with which the
heavily-laden vessel had been thrown ashore did not result
in the smashing in of many parts beside.

As it would be a couple of days or more before the hold
would be in a condition for the bales of cotton to be removed
for the carpenter to examine the damage from the interior of
the ship, Curtis employed the interval in having the broken
mizzen-mast repaired. Dowlas the carpenter, with con-
siderable skill, contrived to mortise it into its former stump.
and made the junction thoroughly secure by strong iron-
belts and bolts. The shrouds, the stays and backstays, were
then carefully refitted, some of the sails were changed, and
the whole of the running rigging was renewed. Injury, to
some extent, had been done to the poop and to the crew's
lockers in the front; but time and labor were all that were
wanted to make them good; and with such a will did every-
body set to work that it was not long before all the cabins
were again available for use.

On the 8th the unlading of the ship commenced. Pulleys
and tackling were put over the hatches, and passengers and
crew together proceeded to haul up the heavy bales which
had been deluged so frequently by water that the cotton was
all but spoiled. One by one the sodden bales were placed in
the boat to be transported to the reef. After the first layer
of cotton had been removed it became necessary to drain
off part of the water that filled the hold. For this purpose
the leak in the side had somehow or other to be stopped, and
this was an operation which was cleverly accomplished by
Dowlas and Flaypole, who contrived to dive at low tide
and nail a sheet of copper over the entire hole. This, how-
ever, of itself would have been utterly inadequate to sustain
the pressure that would arise from the action of the pumps;
so Curtis ordered that a number of the bales should be piled
up inside against the broken planks. The scheme succeeded
very well, and as the water got lower and lower in the hold
the men were enabled to r­sum­ their task of unlading.

Curtis thinks it quite probable that the leaks may be
mended from the interior. By far the best way of repairing
the damage would be to careen the ship, and to shift the
planking, but the appliances are wanting for such an un-
dertaking; moreover, any bad weather which might occur
while the ship was on her flank would only too certainly be
fatal to her altogether. But the captain has very little doubt
that by some device or other he shall manage to patch up the
hole in such a way as will insure our reaching land in safety.

After two days' toil the water was entirely reduced, and
without further difficulty the unlading was completed. All
of us, including even Andre Letourneur, have been taking
our turn at the pumps, for the work is so extremely fatiguing
that the crew require some occasional respite; arms and back
soon become strained and weary with the incessant swing of
the handles, and I can well understand the dislike which
sailors always express to the labor.

One thing there is which is much in our favor; the ship
lies on a firm and solid bottom, and we have the satisfaction
of knowing that we are not contending with a flood that
encroaches faster than it can be resisted. Heaven grant that
we may not be called to make like efforts, and to make them
hopelessly, for a foundering ship!


CHAPTER XX
EXAMINATION OF THE HOLD

NOVEMBER 15 to 20. -- The examination of the hold has
at last been made. Among the first things that were found
was the case of picrate, perfectly intact, having neither been
injured by the water, nor of course reached by the flames.
Why it was not at once pitched into the sea I cannot say;
but it was merely conveyed to the extremity of the island,
and there it remains.

While they were below, Curtis and Dowlas made them-
selves acquainted with the full extent of the mischief that
had been done by the conflagration. They found that the
deck and the cross-beams that supported it had been much
less injured than they expected, and the thick, heavy planks
had only been scorched very superficially. But the action
of the fire on the flanks of the ship had been of a much more
serious character; a long portion of the inside boarding had
been burned away, and the very ribs of the vessel were con-
siderably damaged; the oakum caulkings had all started away
from the butt-ends and seams; so much so that it was little
short of a miracle that the whole ship had not long since
gaped completely open.

The captain and the carpenter returned to the deck with
anxious faces. Curtis lost no time in assembling pas-
sengers and crew, and announcing to them the facts of the
case.

"My friends," he said, "I am here to tell you that the
Chancellor has sustained far greater injuries than we sus-
pected, and that her hull is very seriously damaged. If we
had been stranded anywhere else than on a barren reef, that
may at any time be overwhelmed by a tempestuous sea, I
should not have hesitated to take the ship to pieces, and con-
struct a smaller vessel that might have carried us safely to
land; but I dare not run the risk of remaining here. We
are now 800 miles from the coast of Paramaribo, the nearest
portion of Dutch Guiana, and in ten or twelve days, if the
weather should be favorable, I believe we could reach the
shore. What I now propose to do is to stop the leak by
the best means we can command, and make at once for the
nearest port."

As no better plan seemed to suggest itself, Curtis's proposal
was unanimously accepted. Dowlas and his assistants im-
mediately set to work to repair the charred frame-work of
the ribs, and to stop the leak; they took care thoroughly to
calk from the outside all the seams that were above low
water mark; lower than that they were unable to work, and
had to content themselves with such repairs as they could
effect in the interior. But after all the pains there is no
doubt the Chancellor is not fit for a long voyage, and would
be condemned as unseaworthy at any port at which we might
put in.

To-day the 20th, Curtis having done all that human power
could do to repair his ship, determined to put her to sea.

Ever since the Chancellor had been relieved of her cargo,
and of the water in her hold, she had been able to float in
the little natural basin into which she had been driven. The
basin was enclosed on either hand by rocks that remained
uncovered even at high water, but was sufficiently wide to
allow the vessel to turn quite round at its broadest part, and
by means of hawsers fastened on the reef to be brought with
her bows towards the south; while, to prevent her being
carried back on to the reef, she has been anchored fore and
aft.

To all appearance, then, it seemed as though it would be
an easy matter to put the Chancellor to sea; if the wind
were favorable the sails would be hoisted; if otherwise, she
would have to be towed through the narrow passage. All
seemed simple. But unlooked-for difficulties had yet to be
surmounted.

The mouth of the passage is guarded by a kind of ridge
of basalt, which at high tide we knew was barely covered
with sufficient water to float the Chancellor, even when en-
tirely unfreighted. To be sure she had been carried over
the obstacle once before, but then, as I have already said,
she had been caught up by an enormous wave, and might
have been said to be LIFTED over the barrier into her pres-
ent position. Besides, on that ever memorable night, there
had not only been the ordinary spring-tide, but an equinoctial
tide, such a one as could not be expected to occur again for
many months. Waiting was out of the question; so Curtis
determined to run the risk, and to take advantage of the
spring-tide, which would occur to-day, to make an attempt
to get the ship, lightened as she was, over the bar; after
which, he might ballast her sufficiently to sail.

The wind was blowing from the northwest, and conse-
quently right in the direction of the passage. The captain,
however, after a consultation, preferred to tow the ship over
the ridge, as he considered it was scarcely safe to allow a
vessel of doubtful stability at full sail to charge an obstacle
that would probably bring her to a dead lock. Before the
operation was commenced, Curtis took the precaution of
having an anchor ready in the stern, for, in the event of the
attempt being unsuccessful, it would be necessary to bring
the ship back to her present moorings. Two more anchors
were next carried outside the passage, which was not more
than two hundred feet in length. The chains were attached
to the windlass, the sailors worked at the hand-spikes, and
at four o'clock in the afternoon the Chancellor was in mo-
tion.

High tide would be at twenty minutes past four, and at
ten minutes before that time the ship had been hauled as
far as her sea-range would allow; her keel grazed the ridge,
and her progress was arrested. When the lowest part of her
stern, however, just cleared the obstruction, Curtis deemed
that there was no longer any reason why the mechanical ac-
tion of the wind should not be brought to bear and con-
tribute its assistance. Without delay, all sails were unfurled
and trimmed to the wind. The tide was exactly at its height,
passengers and crew together were at the windlass, M.
Letourneur, Andre, Falsten, and myself being at the star-
board bar. Curtis stood upon the poop, giving his chief
attention to the sails; the lieutenant was on the forecastle;
the boatswain by the helm. The sea seemed propitiously
calm and; as it swelled gently to and fro, lifted the ship
several times.

"Now, my boys," said Curtis, in his calm clear voice, "all
together! Off!"

Round went the windlass; click, click, clanked the chains
as link by link they were forced through the hawse-holes.

The breeze freshened, and the masts gave to the pressure
of the sails, but round and round we went, keeping time in
regular monotony to the sing-song tune hummed by one of
the sailors.

We had gained about twenty feet, and were redoubling
our efforts when the ship grounded again.

And now no effort would avail; all was in vain; the tide
began to turn: and the Chancellor would not advance an inch.
Was there time to go back? She would inevitably go to
pieces if left balanced upon the ridge. In an instant the cap-
tain has ordered the sails to be furled, and the anchor
dropped from the stern.

One moment of terrible anxiety, and all is well.

The Chancellor tacks to stern, and glides back into the
basin, which is once more her prison.

"Well, captain," says the boatswain, "what's to be done
now?"

"I don't know," said Curtis, "but we shall get across
somehow."


CHAPTER XXI
THE "CHANCELLOR" RELEASED FROM HER PRISON

NOVEMBER 21 TO 24. -- There was assuredly no time to be
lost before we ought to leave Ham Rock reef. The barom-
eter had been falling ever since the morning, the sea was
getting rougher, and there was every symptom that the
weather, hitherto so favorable, was on the point of breaking;
and in the event of a gale the Chancellor must inevitably be
dashed to pieces on the rocks.

In the evening, when the tide was quite low, and the rocks
uncovered, Curtis, the boatswain, and Dowlas went to exam-
ine the ridge which had proved so serious an obstruction.
Falsten and I accompanied them. We came to the conclu-
sion that the only way of effecting a passage was by cutting
away the rocks with pikes over a surface measuring ten feet
by six. An extra depth of nine or ten inches would give a
sufficient gauge, and the channel might be accurately marked
out by buoys; in this way it was conjectured the ship might
be got over the ridge and so reach the deep water beyond.

"But this basalt is as hard as granite," said the boatswain;
"besides, we can only get at it at low water, and conse-
quently could only work at it for two hours out of the
twenty-four."

"All the more reason why we should begin at once, boat-
swain," said Curtis.

"But if it is to take us a month, captain, perhaps by that
time the ship may be knocked to atoms. Couldn't we man-
age to blow up the rock? we have got some powder aboard."

"Not enough for that," said the boatswain.

"You have something better than powder," said Falsten.

"What's that?" asked the captain.

"Picrate of potash," was the reply.

And so the explosive substance with which poor Ruby had
so grievously imperiled the vessel was now to serve her in
good stead, and I now saw what a lucky thing it was that
the case had been deposited safely on the reef, instead of be-
ing thrown into the sea.

The sailors went off at once for their pikes, and Dowlas
and his assistants, under the direction of Falsten, who, as an
engineer, understood such matters, proceeded to hollow out
a mine wherein to deposit the powder. At first we hoped
that everything would be ready for the blasting to take place
on the following morning, but when daylight appeared we
found that the men, although they had labored with a will,
had only been able to work for an hour at low water and
that four tides must ebb before the mine had been sunk to the
required depth.

Not until eight o'clock on the morning of the 23d was
the work complete. The hole was bored obliquely in the
rock, and was large enough to contain about ten pounds of
explosive matter. Just as the picrate was being introduced
into the aperture, Falsten interposed:

"Stop," he said, "I think it will be best to mix the picrate
with common powder, as that will allow us to fire the mine
with a match instead of the gun-priming which would be
necessary to produce a shock. Besides, it is an understood
thing that the addition of gunpowder renders picrate far
more effective in blasting such rocks as this, as then the
violence of the picrate prepares the way for the powder
which, slower in its action, will complete the disseverment of
the basalt."

Falsten is not a great talker, but what he does say is al-
ways very much to the point. His good advice was imme-
diately followed; the two substances were mixed together,
and after a match had been introduced the compound was
rammed closely into the hole.

Notwithstanding that the Chancellor was at a distance
from the rocks that insured her from any danger of being
injured by the explosion, it was thought advisable that the
passengers and crew should take refuge in the grotto at the
extremity of the reef, and even Mr. Kear, in spite of his
many objections, was forced to leave the ship. Falsten, as
soon as he had set fire to the match, joined us in our retreat.

The train was to burn for ten minutes, and at the end of
that time the explosion took place; the report, on account of
the depth of the mine, being muffled, and much less noisy
than we had expected. But the operation had been perfectly
successful. Before we reached the ridge we could see that
the basalt had been literally reduced to powder, and that a
little channel, already being filled by the rising tide, had been
cut right through the obstacle. A loud hurrah rang through
the air; our prison-doors were opened, and we were prison-
ers no more.

At high tide the Chancellor weighed anchor and floated
out into the sea, but she was not in a condition to sail until
she had been ballasted; and for the next twenty-four hours
the crew were busily employed in taking up blocks of stone,
and such of the bales of cotton as had sustained the least
amount of injury.

In the course of the day, M. Letourneur, Andre, Miss
Herbey, and I took a farewell walk round the reef, and
Andre, with artistic skill, carved on the wall of the grotto
the word Chancellor -- the designation of Ham Rock, which
we had given to the reef -- and the date of our running
aground. Then we bade adieu to the scene of our three
weeks' sojourn, where we had passed days that to some at
least of our party will be reckoned as far from being the
least happy of their lives.

At high tide this morning, the 24th, with low, top, and
gallant sails all set, the Chancellor started on her onward
way, and two hours later the last peak of Ham Rock had
vanished below the horizon.


CHAPTER XXII
A NEW DANGER

NOVEMBER 24 to December1. -- Here we were then once
more at sea, and although on board a ship of which the
stability was very questionable, we had hopes, if the wind
continued favorable, of reaching the coast of Guiana in the
course of a few days.

Our way was southwest and consequently with the wind,
and although Curtis would not crowd on all sail lest the
extra speed should have a tendency to spring the leak afresh,
the Chancellor made a progress that was quite satisfactory.
Life on board began to fall back into its former routine; the
feeling of insecurity and the consciousness that we were
merely retracing our path doing much, however, to destroy
the animated intercourse that would otherwise go on be-
tween passenger and passenger.

The first few days passed without any incident worth re-
cording, then on the 29th, the wind shifted to the north, and
it became necessary to brace the yards, trim the sails, and
take a starboard tack. This made the ship lurch very much
on one side, and as Curtis felt that she was laboring far too
heavily, he clewed up the top-gallants, prudently reckoning
that, under the circumstances, caution was far more impor-
tant than speed.

The night came on dark and foggy. The breeze fresh-
ened considerably, and, unfortunately for us, hailed from the
northwest. Although we carried no topsails at all, the ship
seemed to heel over more than ever. Most of the passengers
had retired to their cabins, but all the crew remained on deck,
while Curtis never quitted his post upon the poop.

Toward two o'clock in the morning I was myself prepar-
ing to go to my cabin, when Burke, one of the sailors who
had been down into the hold, came on deck with the cry:

"Two feet of water below."

In an instant Curtis and the boatswain had descended the
ladder. The startling news was only too true; the sea-water
was entering the hold, but whether the leak had sprung
afresh, or whether the caulking in some of the seams was
insufficient, it was then impossible to determine; all that
could be done was to let the ship go with the wind, and wait
for day.

At daybreak they sounded again -- "Three feet of
water!" was the report. I glanced at Curtis -- his lips were
white, but he had not lost his self-possession. He quietly in-
formed such of the passengers as were already on deck of
the new danger that threatened us; it was better that they
should know the worst, and the fact could not be long con-
cealed. I told M. Letourneur that I could not help hoping
that there might yet be time to reach the land before the last
crisis came. Falsten was about to give vent to an expres-
sion of despair, but he was soon silenced by Miss Herbey
asserting her confidence that all would yet be well.

Curtis at once divided the crew into two sets, and made
them work incessantly, turn and turn about, at the pumps.
The men applied themselves to their task with resignation
rather than with ardor; the labor was hard and scarcely re-
paid them; the pumps were constantly getting out of order,
the valves being choked up by the ashes and bits of cotton
that were floating about in the hold, while every moment
that was spent in cleaning or repairing them was so much
time lost.

Slowly but surely the water continued to rise, and on the
following morning the soundings gave five feet for its depth.
I noticed that Curtis's brow contracted each time that the
boatswain or the lieutenant brought him their report. There
was no doubt it was only a question of time, and not for an
instant must the efforts for keeping down the level be re-
laxed. Already the ship had sunk a foot lower in the water,
and as her weight increased she no longer rose buoyantly
with the waves, but pitched and rolled considerably.

All yesterday and last night the pumping continued, but
still the sea gained upon us. The crew are weary and dis-
couraged, but the second officer and the boatswain set them
a fine example of endurance, and the passengers have now
begun to take their turn at the pumps.

But all are conscious of toiling almost against hope; we
are no longer secured firmly to the solid soil of the Ham
Rock reef, but we are floating over an abyss which daily,
nay hourly, threatens to swallow us into its depths.


CHAPTER XXIII
AN ATTEMPT AT MUTINY

DECEMBER 2 and 3. -- For four hours we have succeeded
in keeping the water in the hold to one level; now, however,
it is very evident that the time cannot be far distant when the
pumps will be quite unequal to their task.

Yesterday Curtis, who does not allow himself a minute's
rest, made a personal inspection of the hold. I, with the
boatswain and carpenter, accompanied him. After dislodg-
ing some of the bales of cotton we could hear a splashing,
or rather gurgling sound; but whether the water was enter-
ing at the original aperture, or whether it found its way in
through a general dislocation of the seams, we were unable
to discover. But, whichever might be the case, Curtis de-
termined to try a plan which, by cutting off communication
between the interior and exterior of the vessel, might, if only
for a few hours, render her hull more water-tight. For this
purpose he had some strong, well tarred sails drawn upward
by ropes from below the keel, as high as the previous leak-
ing place, and then fastened closely and securely to the side
of the hull. The scheme was dubious, and the operation
difficult, but for a time it was effectual, and at the close of
the day the level of the water had actually been reduced by
several inches. The diminution was small enough, but the
consciousness that more water was escaping through the
scupper-holes than was finding its way into the hold gave us
fresh courage to persevere with our work.

The night was dark, but the captain carried all the sail he
could, eager to take every possible advantage of the wind,
which was freshening considerably. If he could have
sighted a ship he would have made signals of distress, and
would not have hesitated to transfer the passengers, and
even have allowed the crew to follow, if they were ready to
forsake him; for himself his mind was made up -- he should
remain on board the Chancellor until she foundered beneath
his feet. No sail, however, hove in sight; consequently
escape by such means was out of our power.

During the night the canvas covering yielded to the pres-
sure of the waves, and this morning, after taking the sound-
ing, the boatswain could not suppress an oath when he an-
nounced, "Six feet of water in the hold!"

The ship, then, was filling once again, and already had
sunk considerably below her previous water-line. With
aching arms and bleeding hands we worked harder than
ever at the pumps, and Curtis makes those who are not
pumping form a line and pass buckets, with all the speed
they can, from hand to hand.

But all in vain! At half-past eight more water is re-
ported in the hold, and some of the sailors, overcome by de-
spair, refuse to work one minute longer.

The first to abandon his post was Owen, a man whom I
have mentioned before as exhibiting something of a mu-
tinous spirit. He is about forty years of age, and altogether
unprepossessing in appearance; his face is bare, with the
exception of a reddish beard, which terminates in a point;
his forehead is furrowed with sinister looking wrinkles, his
lips curl inward, and his ears protrude, while his bleared and
bloodshot eyes are encircled with thick red rings.

Among the five or six other men who had struck work I
noticed Jynxstrop, the cook, who evidently shared all Owen's
ill-feelings.

Twice did Curtis order the men back to the pumps, and
twice did Owen, acting as spokesman for the rest, refuse;
and when Curtis made a step forward as though to approach
him, he said savagely:

"I advise you not to touch me," and walked away to the
forecastle.

Curtis descended to his cabin, and almost immediately re-
turned with a loaded revolver in his hand.

For a moment Owen surveyed the captain with a frown
of defiance; but at a sign from Jynxstrop he seemed to
recollect himself, and, with the remainder of the men, he
returned to his work.


CHAPTER XXIV
CURTIS RESOLVES TO ABANDON THE SHIP

DECEMBER 4. -- The first attempt at mutiny being thus
happily suppressed, it is to be hoped that Curtis will succeed
as well in future. An insubordinate crew would render us
powerless indeed.

Throughout the night the pumps were kept, without
respite, steadily at work, but without producing the least
sensible benefit. The ship became so water-logged and
heavy that she hardly rose at all to the waves, which con-
sequently often washed over the deck and contributed their
part toward aggravating our case. Our situation was
rapidly becoming as terrible as it had been when the fire
was raging in the midst of us; and the prospect of being
swallowed by the devouring billows was no less formidable
than that of perishing in the flames.

Curtis kept the men up to the mark, and, willing or unwill-
ing, they had no alternative but to work on as best they
might; but in spite of all their efforts, the water perpetually
rose, till, at length, the men in the hold who were passing
the buckets found themselves immersed up to their waists,
and were obliged to come on deck.

This morning, after a somewhat protracted consultation
with Walter and the boatswain, Curtis resolved to abandon
the ship. The only remaining boat was far too small to hold
us all, and it would therefore be necessary to construct a
raft that should carry those who could not find room in her.
Dowlas, the carpenter, Mr. Falsten, and ten sailors were told
off to put the raft in hand, the rest of the crew being ordered
to continue their work assiduously at the pumps, until the
time came and everything was ready for embarkation.

Hatchet or saw in hand, the carpenter and his assistants
made a beginning without delay, by cutting and trimming the
spare yards and extra spars to a proper length. These were
then lowered into the sea -- which was propitiously calm --
so as to favor the operation (which otherwise would have
been very difficult) of lashing them together into a firm
framework, about forty feet long and twenty-five feet wide,
upon which the platform was to be supported.

I kept my own place steadily at the pumps, and Andre Le-
tourneur worked at my side. I often noticed his father
glance at him sorrowfully, as though he wondered what
would become of him if he had to struggle with waves to
which even the strongest man could hardly fail to succumb.
But come what may, his father will never forsake him, and
I myself shall not be wanting in rendering him whatever
assistance I can.

Mrs. Kear, who had been for some time in a state of
drowsy unconsciousness, was not informed of the immediate
danger; but when Miss Herbey, looking somewhat pale with
fatigue, paid one of her flying visits to the deck, I warned
her to take every precaution for herself, and to be ready for
any emergency.

"Thank you, doctor, I am always ready," she cheerfully
replied, and returned to her duties below. I saw Andre
follow the young girl with his eyes, and a look of melancholy
interest passed over his countenance.

Toward eight o'clock in the evening the framework for
the raft was almost complete, and the men were lower-
ing empty barrels, which had first been securely bunged,
and were lashing them to the woodwork to insure its
floating.

Two hours later and suddenly there arose the startling
cry, "We are sinking! we are sinking!"

Up to the poop rushed Mr. Kear, followed immediately
by Falsten and Miss Herbey, who were bearing the inan-
imate form of Mrs. Kear. Curtis ran to his cabin, instantly
returning with a chart, a sextant, and a compass in his hand.

The scene that followed will ever be engraven in my
memory; the cries of distress, the general confusion, the
frantic rush of the sailors toward the raft that was not yet
ready to support them, can never be forgotten. The whole
period of my life seemed to be concentrated into that terrible
moment when the planks bent below my feet and the ocean
yawned beneath me.

Some of the sailors had taken their delusive refuge in the
shrouds, and I was preparing to follow them when a hand
was laid upon my shoulder.. Turning round I beheld M.
Letourneur, with tears in his eyes, pointing toward his son.
"Yes, my friend," I said, pressing his hand, "we will save
him, if possible."

But Curtis had already caught hold of the young man,
and was hurrying him to the main-mast shrouds, when the
Chancellor, which had been scudding along rapidly with the
wind, stopped suddenly, with a violent shock, and began to
settle. The sea rose over my ankles, and almost instinc-
tively I clutched at the nearest rope. All at once, when it
seemed all over, the ship ceased to sink, and hung motionless
in mid-ocean.


CHAPTER XXV
WHILE THERE'S LIFE THERE'S HOPE

NIGHT of December 4. -- Curtis caught young Letourneur
again in his arms, and, running with him across the flooded
deck, deposited him safely in the starboard shrouds, whither
his father and I climbed up beside him.

I now had time to look about me. The night was not
very dark, and I could see that Curtis had returned to his
post upon the poop; while in the extreme aft near the taff-
rail, which was still above water, I could distinguish the
forms of Mr. and Mrs. Kear, Miss Herbey, and Mr. Fal-
sten. The lieutenant and the boatswain were on the far end
of the forecastle; the remainder of the crew in the shrouds
and top-masts.

By the assistance of his father, who carefully guided his
feet up the rigging, Andre was hoisted into the main-top.
Mrs. Kear could not be induced to join him in his elevated
position, in spite of being told that if the wind were to
freshen she would inevitably be washed overboard by the
waves; nothing could induce her to listen to remonstrances,
and she insisted upon remaining on the poop -- Miss Herbey,
of course, staying by her side.

As soon as the captain saw the Chancellor was no longer
sinking, he set to work to take down all the sails -- yards and
all -- and the top-gallants, in the hope that by removing
everything that could compromise the equilibrium of the
ship he might diminish the chance of her capsizing alto-
gether.

"But may she not founder at any moment?" I said to
Curtis, when I had joined him for a while upon the poop.

"Everything depends upon the weather," he replied, in
his calmest manner; "that, of course, may change at any
hour. One thing, however, is certain, the Chancellor pre-
serves her equilibrium for the present."

"But do you mean to say," I further asked, "that she can
sail with two feet of water over her deck?"

"No, Mr. Kazallon, she can't sail, but she can drift with
the wind; and if the wind remains in its present quarter, in
the course of a few days we might possibly sight the coast.
Besides, we shall have our raft as a last resource; in a few
hours it will be ready, and at daybreak we can embark."

"You have not, then," I added, "abandoned all hope
even yet?" I marveled at his composure.

"While there's life there's hope, you know, Mr. Kazallon;
out of a hundred chances, ninety-nine may be against us,
but perhaps the odd one may be in our favor. Besides, I
believe that our case is not without precedent. In the year
1795, a three-master, the Juno, was precisely in the same
half-sunk, water-logged condition as ourselves; and yet, with
her passengers and crew clinging to her top-masts, she
drifted for twenty days, until she came in sight of land,
when those who had survived the deprivation and fatigue
were saved. So let us not despair; let us hold on to the
hope that the survivors of the Chancellor may be equally
fortunate."

I was only too conscious that there was not much to be
said in support of Curtis's sanguine view of things, and that
the force of reason pointed all the other way; but I said
nothing, deriving what comfort I could from the fact that
the captain did not yet despond of an ultimate rescue.

As it was necessary to be prepared to abandon the ship
almost at a moment's notice, Dowlas was making every
exertion to hurry on the construction of the raft. A little
before midnight he was on the point of conveying some
planks for this purpose, when, to his astonishment and
horror, he found that the framework had totally disap-
peared. The ropes that had attached it to the vessel had
snapped as she became vertically displaced, and probably it
had been adrift for more than an hour.

The crew were frantic at this new misfortune, and shout-
ing "Overboard with the masts!" they began to cut down
the rigging preparatory to taking possession of the masts
for a new raft.

But here Curtis interposed:

"Back to your places, my men; back to your places. The
ship will not sink yet, so don't touch a rope until I give you
leave."

The firmness of the captain's voice brought the men to
their senses, and although some of them could ill disguise
their reluctance, all returned to their posts.

When daylight had sufficiently advanced Curtis mounted
the mast, and looked around for the missing raft; but it was
nowhere to be seen. The sea was far too rough for the men
to venture to take out the whale-boat in search of it, and
there was no choice but to set to work and to construct a
new raft immediately.

Since the sea has become so much rougher, Mrs. Kear has
been induced to leave the poop, and has managed to join M.
Letourneur and his son on the main-top, where she lies in a
state of complete prostration. I need hardly add that Miss
Herbey continues in her unwearied attendance. The space
to which these four people are limited is necessarily very
small, nowhere measuring twelve feet across: to prevent
them losing their balance some spars have been lashed from
shroud to shroud, and for the convenience of the two ladies
Curtis has contrived to make a temporary awning of a sail.
Mr. Kear has installed himself with Silas Huntly on the
foretop.

A few cases of preserved meat and biscuit and some
barrels of water, that floated between the masts after the
submersion of the deck, have been hoisted to the top-mast
and fastened firmly to the stays. These are now our only
provisions.


CHAPTER XXVI
MR. KEAR MAKES A BUSINESS DEAL

DECEMBER 5. -- The day was very hot. December in lati-
tude 16 deg. N. is a summer month, and unless a breeze should
rise to temper the burning sun, we might expect to suffer
from an oppressive heat.

The sea still remained very rough, and as the heavy waves
broke over the ship as though she were a reef, the foam flew
up to the very top-masts, and our clothes were perpetually
drenched by the spray.

The Chancellor's hull is three-fourths immerged; besides
the three masts and the bowsprit, to which the whale-boat
was suspended, the poop and the forecastle are the only por-
tions that now are visible; and as the intervening section of
the deck is quite below the water, these appear to be con-
nected only by the framework of the netting that runs along
the vessel's sides. Communication between the top-masts is
extremely difficult, and would be absolutely precluded, were
it not that the sailors, with practiced dexterity, manage to
hoist themselves about by means of the stays. For the pas-
sengers, cowering on their narrow and unstable platform,
the spectacle of the raging sea below was truly terrific;
every wave that dashed over the ship shook the masts till
they trembled again, and one could venture scarcely to look
or to think lest he should be tempted to cast himself into the
vast abyss.

Meanwhile, the crew worked away with all their remain-
ing vigor at the second raft, for which the top-gallants and
yards were all obliged to be employed; the planks, too, which
were continually being loosened and broken away by the
violence of the waves from the partitions of the ship, were
rescued before they had drifted out of reach, and were
brought into use. The symptoms of the ship foundering
did not appear to be immediate; so that Curtis insisted upon
the raft being made with proper care to insure its strength;
we were still several hundred miles from the coast of Guiana,
and for so long a voyage it was indispensable to have a struc-
ture of considerable solidity. The reasonableness of this
was self-apparent, and as the crew had recovered their as-
surance they spared no pains to accomplish their work effec-
tually.

Of all the number, there was but one, an Irishman, named
O'Ready, who seemed to question the utility of all their toil.
He shook his head with an oracular gravity. He is an old-
ish man, not less than sixty, with his hair and beard bleached
with the storms of many travels. As I was making my way
toward the poop, he came up to me and began talking.

"And why, bedad, I'd like to know, why is it that they'll
all be afther lavin' the ship?"

He turned his quid with the most serene composure, and
continued:

"And isn't it me myself that's been wrecked nine times
already? and sure, poor fools are they that ever have put
their trust in rafts or boats; sure and they found a wathery
grave. Nay, nay; while the ould ship lasts, let's stick to her,
says I."

Having thus unburdened his mind he relapsed into si-
lence, and soon went away.

About three o'clock I noticed that Mr. Kear and Silas
Huntly were holding an animated conversation in the fore-
top. The petroleum merchant had evidently some difficulty
in bringing the ex-captain round to his opinion, for I saw
him several times shake his head as he gave long and scrutin-
izing looks at the sea and sky. In less than an hour after-
ward I saw Huntly let himself down by the forestays and
clamber along to the fore-castle, where he joined the group
of sailors, and I lost sight of him.

I attached little importance to the incident, and shortly
afterward joined the party in the main-top, where we con-
tinued talking for some hours. The heat was intense, and if
it had not been for the shelter afforded by the sail-tent,
would have been unbearable. At five o'clock we took as re-
freshment some dried meat and biscuit, each individual be-
ing also allowed half a glass of water. Mrs. Kear prostrate
with fever, could not touch a mouthful; and nothing could
be done by Miss Herbey to relieve her, beyond occasionally
moistening her parched lips. The unfortunate lady suffers
greatly, and sometimes I am inclined to think that she will
succumb to the exposure and privation. Not once had her
husband troubled himself about her; but when shortly after-
ward I heard him hail some of the sailors on the fore-castle
and ask them to help him down from the foretop, I began
to think that the selfish fellow was coming to join his wife.

At first the sailors took no notice of his request, but on
his repeating it with the promise of paying them handsomely
for their services, two of them, Burke and Sandon, swung
themselves along the netting into the shrouds, and were soon
at his side.

A long discussion ensued. The men evidently were ask-
ing more than Mr. Kear was inclined to give, and at one
time it seemed as though the negotiation would fall through
altogether. But at length the bargain was struck, and I saw
Mr. Kear take a bundle of paper dollars from his waistcoat
pocket, and hand a number of them over to one of the men.
The man counted them carefully, and from the time it took
him, I should think that he could not have pocketed anything
less than a hundred dollars.

The next business was to get Mr. Kear down from the
foretop, and Burke and Sandon proceeded to tie a rope
round his waist, which they afterward fastened to the fore-
stay; then, in a way which provoked shouts of laughter from
their mates, they gave the unfortunate man a shove, and sent
him rolling down like a bundle of dirty clothes on to the
forecastle.

I was quite mistaken as to his object. Mr. Kear had no
intention of looking after his wife, but remained by the side
of Silas Huntly until the gathering darkness hid them both
from view.

As night drew on, the wind grew calmer, but the sea re-
mained very rough. The moon had been up ever since four
in the afternoon, though she only appeared at rare intervals
between the clouds. Some long lines of vapor on the hori-
zon were tinged with a rosy glare that foreboded a strong
breeze for the morrow, and all felt anxious to know from
which quarter the breeze would come, for any but a north-
easter would bear the frail raft on which we were to embark
far away from land.

About eight o'clock in the evening, Curtis mounted to the
main-top, but he seemed preoccupied and anxious, and did
not speak to anyone. He remained for a quarter of an
hour, then after silently pressing my hand, he returned to
his old post.

I laid myself down in the narrow space at my disposal,
and tried to sleep; but my mind was filled with strange fore-
bodings, and sleep was impossible. The very calmness of
the atmosphere was oppressive; scarcely a breath of air
vibrated through the metal rigging, and yet the sea rose with
a heavy swell as though it felt the warnings of a coming
tempest.

All at once, at about eleven o'clock, the moon burst
brightly forth through a rift in the clouds, and the waves
sparkled again as if illuminated by a submarine glimmer. I
start up and look around me. Is it merely imagination? or
do I really see a black speck floating, on the dazzling white-
ness of the waters, a speck that cannot be a rock, because
it rises and falls with the heaving motion of the billows?
But the moon once again becomes overclouded; the sea is
darkened, and I return to my uneasy couch close to the lar-
board shrouds.


CHAPTER XXVII
THE WHALE-BOAT MISSING

DECEMBER 6. -- I must have fallen asleep for a few hours,
when, at four o'clock in the morning, I was rudely aroused
by the roaring of the wind, and could distinguish Curtis's
voice as he shouted in the brief intervals between the heavy
gusts.

I got up, and holding tightly to the purlin -- for the waves
made the masts tremble with their violence -- I tried to look
around and below me. The sea was literally raging beneath,
and great masses of livid-looking foam were dashing be-
tween the masts, which were oscillating terrifically. It was
still dark, and I could only faintly distinguish two figures
in the stern, whom, by the sound of their voices, that I
caught occasionally above the tumult, I made out to be
Curtis and the boatswain.

Just at that moment a sailor, who had mounted to the
main-top to do something to the rigging, passed close be-
hind me.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"The wind has changed," he answered, adding something
which I could not hear distinctly, but which sounded like
"dead against us."

Dead against us! then. thought I, the wind had shifted to
the southwest, and my last night's forebodings had been
correct.

When daylight at length appeared, I found the wind, al-
though not blowing actually from the southwest, had veered
round to the northwest, a change which was equally dis-
astrous to us, inasmuch as it was carrying us away from
land. Moreover, the ship had sunk considerably during the
night, and there were now five feet of water above deck;
the side netting had completely disappeared, and the fore-
castle and the poop were now all but on a level with the sea,
which washed over them incessantly. With all possible ex-
pedition Curtis and his crew were laboring away at their
raft, but the violence of the swell materially impeded their
operations, and it became a matter of doubt as to whether
the woodwork would not fall asunder before it could be
properly fastened together.

As I watched the men at their work, M. Letourneur, with
one arm supporting his son, came out and stood by my side.

"Don't you think this main-top will soon give way?" he
said, as the narrow platform on which we stood creaked and
groaned with the swaying of the masts.

Miss Herbey heard his words and pointing toward Mrs.
Kear, who was lying prostrate at her feet, asked what we
thought ought to be done.

"We can do nothing but stay where we are," I replied.

"No," said Andre, "this is our best refuge; I hope you
are not afraid."

"Not for myself," said the young girl quietly, "only for
those to whom life is precious."

At a quarter to eight we heard the boatswain calling to
the sailors in the bows.

"Ay, ay, sir," said one of the men -- O'Ready, I think.

"Where's the whale-boat?" shouted the boatswain in a
loud voice.

"I don't know, sir. Not with us," was the reply.

"She's gone adrift, then!"

And sure enough the whale-boat was no longer hanging
from the bowsprit; and in a moment the discovery was made
that Mr. Kear, Silas Huntly, and three sailors, -- a Scotch-
man and two Englishmen, -- were missing. Afraid that the
Chancellor would founder before the completion of the raft,
Kear and Huntly had plotted together to effect their escape,
and had bribed the three sailors to seize the only remaining
boat.

This, then, was the black speck that I had seen during the
night. The miserable husband had deserted his wife, the
faithless captain had abandoned the ship that had once been
under his command.

"There are five saved, then," said the boatswain.

"Faith, an it's five lost ye'll be maning," said O'Ready;
and the state of the sea fully justified his opinion.

The crew were furious when they heard of the surrepti-
tious flight, and loaded the fugitives with all the invectives
they could lay their tongues to. So enraged were they
at the dastardly trick of which they had been made the dupes,
that if chance should bring the deserters again on board I
should be sorry to answer for the consequences.

In accordance with my advice, Mrs. Kear has not been in-
formed of her husband's disappearance. The unhappy lady
is wasting away with a fever for which we are powerless to
supply a remedy, for the medicine-chest was lost when the
ship began to sink. Nevertheless, I do not think we have
anything to regret on that score, feeling, as I do, that in a
case like Mrs. Kear's, drugs would be of no avail.


CHAPTER XXVIII
MRS. KEAR SUCCUMBS TO FEVER

DECEMBER 6 continued. -- The Chancellor no longer main-
tained her equilibrium; we felt that she was gradually going
down, and her hull was probably breaking up. The main-
top was already only ten feet above water, while the bow-
sprit, with the exception of the extreme end, that rose
obliquely from the waves, was entirely covered.

The Chancellor's last day, we felt, had come.

Fortunately the raft was all but finished, and unless Curtis
preferred to wait till morning, we should be able to embark
in the evening.

The raft is a very solid structure. The spars that form
the framework are crossed one above another and lashed
together with stout ropes, so that the whole pile rises a
couple of feet above the water. The upper platform is con-
structed from the planks that were broken from the ship's
sides by the violence of the waves, and which had not drifted
away. The afternoon has been employed in charging the
raft with such provisions, sails, tools, and instruments as we
have been able to save.

And how can I attempt to give any idea of the feelings
with which, one and all, we now contemplated the fate be-
fore us? For my own part, I was possessed rather by a
benumbed indifference than by any sense of genuine resigna-
tion. M. Letourneur was entirely absorbed in his son, who,
in his turn, thought only of his father, at the same time
exhibiting a Christian fortitude, which was shown by no one
else of the party except Miss Herbey, who faced her danger
with the same brave composure. Incredible as it may seem,
Falsten remained the same as ever, occupying himself with
writing down figures and memoranda in his pocketbook.
Mrs. Kear, in spite of all that Miss Herbey could do for her,
was evidently dying.

With regard to the sailors, two or three of them were
calm enough, but the rest had well-nigh lost their wits.
Some of the more ill-disposed among them seemed inclined
to run into excesses; and their conduct, under the bad in-
fluence of Owen and Jynxstrop, made it doubtful whether
they would submit to control when once we were limited to
the narrow dimensions of the raft. Lieutenant Walter, al-
though his courage never failed him, was worn out with
bodily fatigue, and obliged to give up all active labor; but
Curtis and the boatswain were resolute, energetic and firm
as ever. To borrow an expression from the language of
metallurgic art, they were men "at the highest degree of
hardness."

At five o'clock one of our companions in misfortune was
released from her sufferings. Mrs. Kear, after a most dis-
tressing illness, through which her young companion tended
her with the most devoted care, has breathed her last. A
few deep sighs and all was over, and I doubt whether
the sufferer was ever conscious of the peril of her
situation.

The night passed on without further incident. Toward
morning I touched the dead woman's hand, and it was cold
and stiff. The corpse could not remain any longer on the
main-top, and after Miss Herbey and I had carefully
wrapped the garments about it, with a few short prayers
the body of the first victim of our miseries was committed
to the deep.

As the sea closed over the body I heard one of the men in
the shrouds say:

"There goes a carcass that we shall be sorry we have
thrown away!"

I looked round sharply. It was Owen who had spoken.
But horrible as were his words, the conviction was forced
upon my mind that the day could not be far distant when we
must want for food.


CHAPTER XXIX
WE EMBARK ON THE RAFT

DECEMBER 7. -- The ship was sinking rapidly; the water
had risen to the fore-top; the poop and forecastle were
completely submerged; the top of the bowsprit had disap-
peared, and only the three mast-tops projected from the
waves.

But all was ready on the raft; an erection had been made
on the fore to hold a mast, which was supported by shrouds
fastened to the sides of the platform; this mast carried a
large royal.

Perhaps, after all, these few frail planks will carry us to
the shore which the Chancellor has failed to reach; at any
rate, we cannot yet resign all hope.

We were just on the point of embarking at 7 A. M. when
the Chancellor all at once began to sink so rapidly that the
carpenter and men who were on the raft were obliged with
all speed to cut the ropes that secured it to the vessel, to pre-
vent it from being swallowed up in the eddying waters.

Anxiety, the most intense, took possession of us all. At
the very moment when the ship was descending into the
fathomless abyss, the raft, our only hope of safety, was
drifting off before our eyes. Two of the sailors and an
apprentice, beside themselves with terror, threw themselves
headlong into the sea; but it was evident from the very
first they were quite powerless to combat the winds and
waves. Escape was impossible; they could neither reach
the raft nor return to the ship. Curtis tied a rope round
his waist and tried to swim to their assistance; but long be-
fore he could reach them, the unfortunate men, after a vain
struggle for life, sank below the waves and were seen no
more. Curtis, bruised and beaten with the surf that raged
about the mast-heads, was hauled back to the ship.

Meantime, Dowlas and his men, by means of some spars
which they used as oars, were exerting themselves to bring
back the raft, which had drifted about two cables'-lengths
away; but, in spite of all their efforts, it was fully an hour --
an hour which seemed to us, waiting as we were with the
water up to the level of the top masts, like an eternity -- be-
fore they succeeded in bringing the raft alongside, and lash-
ing it once again to the Chancellor's main-mast.

Not a moment was then to be lost. The waves were
eddying like a whirlpool around the submerged vessel, and
numbers of enormous airbubbles were rising to the surface
of the water.

The time was come. At Curtis's word, "Embark!" we
all hurried to the raft. Andre, who insisted upon seeing
Miss Herbey go first, was helped safely on to the platform,
where his father immediately joined him. In a very few
minutes all except Curtis and old O'Ready had left the
Chancellor.

Curtis remained standing on the main-top, deeming it not
only his duty, but his right, to be the last to leave the vessel
he had loved so well, and the loss of which he so much de-
plored.

"Now then, old fellow, off of this!" cried the captain
to the old Irishman, who did not move.

"And is it quite sure ye are that she's sinkin'?" he said.

"Ay, ay! sure enough, my man; and you'd better look
sharp."

"Faith, then, and I think I will;" and not a moment too
soon (for the water was up to his waist) he jumped on to
the raft.

Having cast one last, lingering look around him, Curtis
then left the ship; the rope was cut, and we went slowly
adrift.

All eyes were fixed upon the spot where the Chancellor lay
foundering. The top of the mizzen was the first to dis-
appear, then followed the main-top; and soon, of what had
been a noble vessel, not a vestige was to be seen.


CHAPTER XXX
OUR SITUATION CRITICAL

WILL this frail boat, forty feet by twenty, bear us in
safety? Sink it cannot; the material of which it is com-
posed is of a kind that must surmount the waves. But it
is questionable whether it will hold together. The cords
that bind it will have a tremendous strain to bear in resist-
ing the violence of the sea. The most sanguine among us
trembles to face the future; the most confident dares to
think only of the present. After the manifold perils of the
last seventy-two days' voyage all are too agitated to look
forward without dismay to what in all human probability
must be a time of the direst distress.

Vain as the task may seem, I will not pause in my work
of registering the events of our drama, as scene after scene
they are unfolded before our eyes.

Of the twenty-eight persons who left Charleston in the
Chancellor, only eighteen are left to huddle together upon
this narrow raft; this number includes the five passengers,
namely, M. Letourneur, Andre, Miss Herbey, Falsten, and
myself; the ship's officers, Captain Curtis, Lieutenant Wal-
ter, the boatswain, Hobart the steward, Jynxstrop the cook,
and Dowlas the carpenter; and seven sailors, Austin, Owen,
Wilson, O'Ready, Burke, Sandon, and Flaypole.

Such are the passengers on the raft; it is but a brief task
to enumerate their resources.

The greater part of the provisions in the store-room were
destroyed at the time when the ship's deck was submerged,
and the small quantity that Curtis has been able to save will
be very inadequate to supply the wants of eighteen people,
who too probably have many days to wait ere they sight
either land or a passing vessel. One cask of biscuit, an-
other of preserved meat, a small keg of brandy, and two
barrels of water complete our store, so that the utmost
frugality in the distribution of our daily rations becomes
absolutely necessary.

Of spare clothes we have positively none; a few sails
will serve for shelter by day, and covering by night.
Dowlas has his carpenter's tools, we have each a pocket-
knife, and O'Ready an old tin pot, of which he takes the
most tender care; in addition to these, we are in possession
of a sextant, a compass, a chart, and a metal tea-kettle,
everything else that was placed on deck in readiness for the
first raft having been lost in the partial submersion of the
vessel.

Such then is our situation; critical indeed, but after all
perhaps not desperate. We have one great fear; some there
are among us whose courage, moral as well as physical,
may give way, and over failing spirits such as these we may
have no control.


CHAPTER XXXI
FIRST DAY ON THE RAFT

DECEMBER 7 continued. -- Our first day on the raft has
passed without any special incident. At eight o'clock this
morning Curtis asked our attention for a moment.

"My friends," he said, "listen to me. Here on this raft,
just as when we were on board the Chancellor, I consider
myself your captain; and as your captain, I expect that all
of you will strictly obey my orders. Let me beg of you, one
and all, to think solely of our common welfare; let us work
with one heart and with one soul, and may Heaven protect
us!"

After delivering these few words with an emotion that
evidenced their earnestness, the captain consulted his com-
pass, and found that the freshening breeze was blowing
from the north. This was fortunate for us, and no time
was to be lost in taking advantage of it to speed us on our
dubious way. Dowlas was occupied in fixing the mast into
the socket that had already been prepared for its reception,
and in order to support it more firmly he placed spurs of
wood, forming arched buttresses, on either side. While
he was thus employed the boatswain and the other seamen
were stretching the large royal sail on the yard that had
been reserved for that purpose.

By half-past nine the mast was hoisted, and held firmly
in its place by some shrouds attached securely to the sides
of the raft; then the sail was run up and trimmed to the
wind, and the raft began to make a perceptible progress
under the brisk breeze.

As soon as we had once started, the carpenter set to work
to contrive some sort of a rudder, that would enable us to
maintain our desired direction. Curtis and Falsten assisted
him with some serviceable suggestions, and in a couple of
hours' time he had made and fixed to the back of the raft
a kind of paddle, very similar to those used by the Malays.

At noon, after the necessary preliminary observations,
Curtis took the altitude of the sun. The result gave lat.
15 deg. 7' N. by long. 49 deg. 35' W. as our position, which, on
consulting the chart, proved to be about 650 miles northeast
of the coast of Paramaribo in Dutch Guiana.

Now even under the most favorable circumstances, with
trade-winds and weather always in our favor, we can not
by any chance hope to make more than ten or twelve miles
a day, so that the voyage cannot possibly be performed under
a period of two months. To be sure there is the hope to be
indulged that we may fall in with a passing vessel, but as
the part of the Atlantic into which we have been driven is
intermediate between the tracks of the French and English
transatlantic steamers either from the Antilles or the
Brazils, we cannot reckon at all upon a contingency happen-
ing in our favor; while if a calm should set in, or worse
still, if the wind were to blow from the east, not only
two months, but twice, nay, three times that length of time
will be required to accomplish the passage.

At best, however, our provisions, even though used with
the greatest care, will barely last three months. Curtis has
called us into consultation, and as the working of the raft
does not require such labor as to exhaust our physical
strength, all have agreed to submit to a regimen which,
although it will suffice to keep us alive, will certainly
not fully satisfy the cravings of hunger and thirst.

As far as we can estimate we have somewhere about 500
lbs. of meat and about the same quantity of biscuit. To
make this last for three months we ought not to consume
very much more than 5 lbs. a day of each, which, when
divided among eighteen people, will make the daily ration 5
oz. of meat and 5 oz. of biscuit for each person. Of water
we have certainly not more than 200 gallons, but by reduc-
ing each person's allowance to a pint a day, we hope to eke
out that, too, over the space of three months.

It is arranged that the food shall be distributed under the
boatswain's superintendence every morning at ten o'clock.
Each person will then receive his allowance of meat and bis-
cuit, which may be eaten when and how he pleases. The
water will be given out twice a day -- at ten in the morn-
ing and six in the evening; but as the only drinking-vessels
in our possession are the teakettle and the old Irishman's tin
pot, the water has to be consumed immediately on distribu-
tion. As for the brandy, of which there are only five gallons,
it will be doled out with the strictest limitation, and no one
will be allowed to touch it except with the captain's express
permission.

I should not forget that there are two sources from which
we may hope to increase our store. First, any rain that
may fall will add to our supply of water, and two empty
barrels have been placed ready to receive it; secondly, we
hope to do something in the way of fishing, and the sailors
have already begun to prepare some lines.

All have mutually agreed to abide by the rules that have
been laid down, for all are fully aware that by nothing
but the most precise regimen can we hope to avert the
horrors of famine, and forewarned by the fate of many who
in similar circumstances have miserably perished, we are
determined to do all that prudence can suggest for hus-
banding our stores.


CHAPTER XXXII
WE CATCH A SUPPLY OF FISH

DECEMBER 8 to 17. -- When night came we wrapped our-
selves in our sails. For my own part, worn out with the
fatigue of the long watch in the top-mast, I slept for several
hours; M. Letourneur and Andre did the same, and Miss
Herbey obtained sufficient rest to relieve the tired expression
that her countenance had lately being wearing. The night
passed quietly. As the raft was not very heavily laden the
waves did not break over it at all, and we were consequently
able to keep ourselves perfectly dry. To say the truth, it
was far better for us that the sea should remain somewhat
boisterous, for any diminution in the swell of the waves
would indicate that the wind had dropped, and it was with
a feeling of regret that when the morning came I had to note
down "weather calm" in my journal.

In these low latitudes the heat in the day-time is so in-
tense, and the sun burns with such an incessant glare, that
the entire atmosphere becomes pervaded with a glowing
vapor. The wind, too, blows only in fitful gusts, and
through long intervals of perfect calm the sails flap idly and
uselessly against the mast. Curtis and the boatswain, how-
ever, are of opinion that we are not entirely dependent on
the wind. Certain indications, which a sailor's eye alone
could detect, make them almost sure that we are being
carried along by a westerly current, that flows at the rate
of three or four miles an hour. If they are not mistaken,
this is a circumstance that may materially assist our pro-
gress, and at which we can hardly fail to rejoice, for the
high temperature often makes our scanty allowance of water
quite inadequate to allay our thirst.

But with all our hardships I must confess that our con-
dition is far preferable to what it was when we were still
clinging to the Chancellor. Here at least we have a com-
paratively solid platform beneath our feet, and we are re-
lieved from the incessant dread of being carried down with
a foundering vessel. In the day time we can move about
with a certain amount of freedom, discuss the weather,
watch the sea, and examine our fishing-lines; while at night
we can rest securely under the shelter of our sails.

"I really think, Mr. Kazallon," said Andre Letourneur
to me a few days after we had embarked, "that our time
on board the raft passes as pleasantly as it did upon Ham
Rock; and the raft has one advantage even over the reef, for
it is capable of motion."

"Yes, Andre," I replied, "as long as the wind continues
favorable the raft has decidedly the advantage; but sup-
posing the wind shifts; what then?"

"Oh, we mustn't think about that," he said; "let us keep
up our courage while we can."

I felt that he was right, and that the dangers we had
escaped should make us more hopeful for the future; and
I think that nearly all of us are inclined to share his opin-
ion.

Whether the captain is equally sanguine I am unable to
say. He holds himself very much aloof, and as he evi-
dently feels that he has the great responsibility of saving
other lives than his own, we are reluctant to disturb his silent
meditations.

Such of the crew as are not on watch spend the greater
portion of their time in dozing on the fore part of the raft.
The aft, by the captain's orders, has been reserved for the
use of us passengers, and by erecting some uprights we have
contrived to make a sort of tent, which affords some shelter
from the sun. On the whole our bill of health is tolerably
satisfactory. Lieutenant Walter is the only invalid, and
he, in spite of all our careful nursing, seems to get weaker
every day.

Andre Letourneur is the life of our party, and I have
never appreciated the young man so well. His originality
of perception makes his conversation both lively and in-
teresting, and as he talks, his wan and suffering countenance
lights up with an intelligent animation. His father seems
to become more devoted to him than ever, and I have seen
him sit for an hour at a time, with his hand resting on his
son's, listening eagerly to his every word.

Miss Herbey occasionally joins in our conversation, but
although we all do our best to make her forget that she has
lost those who should have been her natural protectors, M.
Letourneur is the only one among us to whom she speaks
without a certain reserve. To him, whose age gives him
something of the authority of a father, she has told the his-
tory of her life -- a life of patience and self-denial such as
not unfrequently falls to the lot of orphans. She had been,
she said, two years with Mrs. Kear, and although now left
alone in the world, homeless and without resources, hope
for the future does not fail her. The young lady's modest
deportment and energy of character command the respect of
all on board, and I do not think that even the coarsest of the
sailors has either by word or gesture acted toward her in a
way that she could deem offensive.

The 12th, 13th, and 14th of December passed away with-
out any change in our condition. The wind continued to
blow in irregular gusts, but always in the same direction,
and the helm, or rather the paddle at the back of the raft, has
never once required shifting; and the watch, who are posted
on the fore, under orders to examine the sea with the most
scrupulous attention, have had no change of any kind to
report.

At the end of the week we found ourselves growing ac-
customed to our limited diet, and as we had no manual exer-
tion, and no wear and tear of our physical constitution, we
managed very well. Our greatest deprivation was the
short supply of water, for, as I said before, the unmitigated
heat made our thirst at times very painful.

On the 15th we held high festival. A shoal of fish, of
the sparus tribe, swarmed round the raft, and although our
tackle consisted merely of long cords baited with morsels of
dried meat stuck upon bent nails, the fish were so voracious
that in the course of a couple of days we had caught as many
as weighed almost 200 lbs., some of which were grilled, and
others boiled in sea-water over a fire made on the fore part
of the raft. This marvelous haul was doubly welcome, in-
asmuch as it not only afforded us a change of diet, but
enabled us to economize our stores; if only some rain had
fallen at the same time we would have been more than
satisfied.

Unfortunately the shoal of fish did not remain long in
our vicinity. On the 17th they all disappeared, and some
sharks, not less than twelve or fifteen feet long, belonging
to the species of the spotted dog-fish, took their place. These
horrible creatures have black backs and fins, covered with
white spots and stripes. Here, on our low raft, we seemed
almost on a level with them, and more than once their tails
have struck the spars with terrible violence. The sailors
manage to keep them at a distance by means of handspikes,
but I shall not be surprised if they persist in following us,
instinctively intelligent that we are destined to become their
prey. For myself, I confess that they give me a feeling
of uneasiness; they seem to me like monsters of ill-omen.


CHAPTER XXXIII
MUTINY ON THE RAFT

DECEMBER 18 to 20. -- On the 18th the wind freshened
a little, but as it blew from the same favorable quarter we
did not complain, and only took the precaution of putting
an extra support to the mast, so that it should not snap
with the tension of the sail. This done, the raft was carried
along with something more than its ordinary speed, and
left a long line of foam in its wake.

In the afternoon the sky became slightly over-clouded,
and the heat consequently less oppressive. The swell made
it more difficult for the raft to keep its balance, and we
shipped two or three heavy seas; but the carpenter managed
to make with some planks a kind of wall about a couple of
feet high, which protected us from the direct action of the
waves. Our casks of food and water were secured to the
raft with double ropes, for we dared not run the risk of
their being carried overboard, an accident that would at
once have reduced us to the direst distress.

In the course of the day the sailors gathered some of
the marine plants known by the name of sargassos, very
similar to those we saw in such profusion between the
Bermudas and Ham Rock. I advised my companions to
chew the laminary tangles, which they would find contained
a saccharine juice, affording considerable relief to their
parched lips and throats.

The remainder of the day passed without incident. I
should not, however, omit to mention that the frequent con-
ferences held among the sailors, especially between Owen,
Burke, Flaypole, Wilson, and Jynxstrop, the negro, aroused
some uneasy suspicions in my mind. What was the sub-
ject of their conversation I could not discover, for they
became silent immediately that a passenger or one of the
officers approached them. When I mentioned the matter
to Curtis I found he had already noticed these secret in-
terviews, and that they had given him enough concern to
make him determined to keep a strict eye upon Jynxstrop
and Owen, who, rascals as they were themselves, were evi-
dently trying to disaffect their mates.

On the 19th the heat was again excessive. The sky was
cloudless, and as there was not enough wind to fill the sail
the raft lay motionless upon the surface of the water.
Some of the sailors found a transient alleviation for their
thirst by plunging into the sea, but as we were fully aware
that the water all around was infested with sharks, none
of us was rash enough to follow their example, though if,
as seems likely, we remain long becalmed, we shall probably
in time overcome our fears, and feel constrained to indulge
ourselves with a bath.

The health of Lieutenant Walter continues to cause us
grave anxiety, the young man being weakened by attacks
of intermittent fever. Except for the loss of the medicine-
chest we might have temporarily reduced this by quinine;
but it is only too evident that the poor fellow is consump-
tive, and that that hopeless malady is making ravages upon
him that no medicine could permanently arrest. His sharp,
dry cough, his short breathing, his profuse perspirations,
more especially in the morning; the pinched-in nose, the
hollow cheeks, of which the general pallor is only relieved
by a hectic flush, the contracted lips, the too brilliant eye
and wasted form -- all bear witness to a slow but sure de-
cay.

To-day, the 20th, the temperature is as high as ever, and
the raft still motionless. The rays of the sun penetrate even
through the shelter of our tent, where we sit literally gasp-
ing with the heat. The impatience with which we awaited
the moment when the boatswain should dole out our meager
allowance of water, and the eagerness with which those
lukewarm drops were swallowed, can only be realized by
those who for themselves have endured the agonies of
thirst.

Lieutenant Walter suffers more than any of us from the
scarcity of water, and I noticed that Miss Herbey reserved
almost the whole of her own share for his use. Kind and
compassionate as ever, the young girl does all that lies in
her power to relieve the poor fellow's sufferings.

"Mr. Kazallon," she said to me this morning, "that
young man gets manifestly weaker every day."

"Yes, Miss Herbey," I replied, "and how sorrowful it
is that we can do nothing for him, absolutely nothing."

"Hush!" she said, with her wonted consideration, "per-
haps he will hear what we are saying."

And then she sat down near the edge of the raft, where,
with her head resting on her hands, she remained lost in
thought.

An incident sufficiently unpleasant occurred to-day. For
nearly an hour Owen, Flaypole, Burke and Jynxstrop had
been engaged in close conversation and, although their
voices were low, their gestures had betrayed that they were
animated by some strong excitement. At the conclusion
of the colloquy Owen got up and walked deliberately to the
quarter of the raft that has been reserved for the use of the
passengers.

"Where are you off to now, Owen?" said the boatswain.

"That's my business," said the man insolently, and pur-
sued his course.

The boatswain was about to stop him, but before he could
interfere Curtis was standing and looking Owen steadily in
the face.

"Ah, captain, I've got a word from my mates to say to
you," he said, with all the effrontery imaginable.

"Say on, then," said the captain coolly.

"We should like to know about that little keg of brandy.
Is it being kept for the porpoises or the officers?"

Finding that he obtained no reply, he went on:

"Look here, captain, what we want is to have our grog
served out every morning as usual."

"Then you certainly will not," said the captain.

"What! what!" exclaimed Owen, "don't you mean to
let us have our grog?"

"Once and for all, no."

For a moment, with a malicious grin upon his lips, Owen
stood confronting the captain; then, as though thinking bet-
ter of himself, he turned round and rejoined his companions,
who were still talking together in an undertone.

When I was afterward discussing the matter with Curtis,
I asked him whether he was sure he had done right in re-
fusing the brandy.

"Right!" he cried, "to be sure I have. Allow those
men to have brandy! I would throw it all overboard first."


CHAPTER XXXIV
A SQUALL

DECEMBER 21. -- No further disturbance has taken place
among the men. For a few hours the fish appeared again,
and we caught a great many of them, and stored them away
in an empty barrel. This addition to our stock of pro-
visions makes us hope that food, at least, will not fail us.

Usually the nights in the tropics are cool, but to-day, as
the evening drew on, the wonted freshness did not return,
but the air remained stifling and oppressive, while heavy
masses of vapor hung over the water.

There was no moonlight; there would be a new moon
at half-past one in the morning, but the night was singularly
dark, except for dazzling flashes of summer lightning that
from time to time illuminated the horizon far and wide.
There was, however, no answering roll of thunder, and
the silence of the atmosphere seemed almost awful.

For a couple of hours, in the vain hope of catching a
breath of air, Miss Herbey, Andre Letourneur, and I, sat
watching the imposing struggle of the electric vapors. The
clouds appeared like embattled turrets crested with flame,
and the very sailors, coarse-minded men as they were,
seemed struck with the grandeur of the spectacle, and re-
garded attentively, though with an anxious eye, the pre-
liminary tokens of a coming storm. Until midnight we
kept our seats upon the stern of the raft, while the lightning
ever and again shed around us a livid glare similar to that
produced by adding salt to lighted alcohol.

"Are you afraid of a storm. Miss Herbey?" said Andre
to the girl.

"No, Mr. Andre, my feelings are always rather those of
awe than of fear," she replied. "I consider a storm one of
the sublimest phenomena that we can behold -- don't you
think so too?"

"Yes, and especially when the thunder is pealing," he
said; "that majestic rolling, far different to the sharp crash
of artillery, rises and falls like the long-drawn notes of the
grandest music, and I can safely say that the tones of the
most accomplished artiste have never moved me like that in-
comparable voice of nature."

"Rather a deep bass, though," I said, laughing.

"That may be," he answered; "but I wish we might hear
it now, for this silent lightning is somewhat unexpressive."

"Never mind that, Andre," I said; "enjoy a storm when
it comes, if you like, but pray don't wish for it."

"And why not?" said he; "a storm will bring us wind,
you know."

"And water, too," added Miss Herbey, "the water of
which we are so seriously in need."

The young people evidently wished to regard the storm
from their own point of view, and although I could have
opposed plenty of common sense to their poetical sentiments,
I said no more, but let them talk on as they pleased for
fully an hour.

Meanwhile the sky was becoming quite over-clouded, and
after the zodiacal constellations had disappeared in the mists
that hung round the horizon, one by one the stars above our
heads were veiled in dark rolling masses of vapor, from
which every instant there issued forth sheets of electricity
that formed a vivid background to the dark gray fragments
of cloud that floated beneath.

Sleep, even if we wished it, would have been impossible in
that stifling temperature.  The lightning increased in
brilliancy and appeared from all quarters of the horizon,
each flash covering large arcs, varying from l00 deg. to 150 deg.,
leaving the atmosphere pervaded by one incessant phos-
phorescent glow.

The thunder became at length more and more distinct,
the reports, if I may use the expression, being "round,"
rather than rolling. It seemed almost as though the sky
were padded with heavy clouds of which the elasticity
muffled the sound of the electric bursts.

Hitherto, the sea had been calm, almost stagnant as a
pond. Now, however, long undulations took place, which
the sailors recognized, all too well, as being the rebound pro-
duced by a distant tempest. A ship, in such a case, would
have been instantly brought ahull, but no maneuvering could
be applied to our raft, which could only drift before the
blast.

At one o'clock in the morning one vivid flash, followed,
after the interval of a few seconds, by a loud report of
thunder, announced that the storm was rapidly approaching.
Suddenly the horizon was enveloped in a vaporous fog, and
seemed to contract until it was close around us. At the
same instant the voice of one of the sailors was heard shout-
ing:

"A squall! a squall!"


CHAPTER XXXV
TWO SAILORS WASHED OVERBOARD

DECEMBER 21, night. -- The boatswain rushed to the
halliards that supported the sail, and instantly lowered the
yard; not a moment too soon, for with the speed of an
arrow the squall was upon us, and if it had not been for
the sailor's timely warning we must all have been knocked
down and probably precipitated into the sea; as it was, our
tent on the back of the raft was carried away.

The raft itself, however, being so nearly level with the
water, had little peril to encounter from the actual wind;
but from the mighty waves now raised by the hurricane we
had everything to dread. At first the waves had been
crushed and flattened as it were by the pressure of the air,
but now, as though strengthened by the reaction, they rose
with the utmost fury. The raft followed the motions of
the increasing swell, and was tossed up and down, to and
fro, and from side to side with the most violent oscillations.

"Lash yourselves tight," cried the boatswain, as he threw
us some ropes; and in a few moments with Curtis's assis-
tance, M. Letourneur, and Andre, Falsten and myself were
fastened so firmly to the raft, that nothing but its total dis-
ruption could carry us away. Miss Herbey was bound by
a rope passed round her waist to one of the uprights that had
supported our tent, and by the glare of the lightning I
could see that her countenance was as serene and composed
as ever.

Then the storm began to rage indeed. Flash followed
flash, peal followed peal in quick succession. Our eyes were
blinded, our ears deafened, with the roar and glare. The
clouds above, the ocean beneath, seemed verily to have taken
fire, and several times I saw forked lightnings dart upward
from the crest of the waves, and mingle with those that
radiated from the fiery vault above. A strong odor of
sulphur pervaded the air, but though thunderbolts fell thick
around us, not one touched our raft.

By two o'clock the storm had reached its height. The
hurricane had increased, and the heavy waves, heated to a
strange heat by the general temperature, dashed over us
until we were drenched to the skin. Curtis, Dowlas, the
boatswain, and the sailors did what they could to strengthen
the raft with additional ropes. M. Letourneur placed him-
self in front of Andre, to shelter him from the waves.
Miss Herbey stood upright and motionless as a statue.

Soon dense masses of lurid clouds came rolling up, and
a crackling, like the rattle of musketry, resounded through
the air. This was produced by a series of electrical con-
cussions, in which volleys of hailstones were discharged
from the cloud-batteries above. In fact, as the storm-sheet
came in contact with a current of cold air, hail was formed
with great rapidity, and hailstones, large as nuts, came pelt-
ing down, making the platform of the raft re-echo with a
metallic ring.

For about half an hour the meteoric shower continued
to descend, and during that time the wind slightly abated
in violence; but after having shifted from quarter to quar-
ter, it once more blew with all its former fury.  The
shrouds were broken, but happily the mast, already bending
almost double, was removed by the men from its socket be-
fore it should be snapped short off.. One gust caught away
the tiller, which went adrift beyond all power of recovery,
and the same blast blew down several of the planks that
formed the low parapet on the larboard side, so that the
waves dashed in without hindrance through the breach.

The carpenter and his mates tried to repair the damage,
but, tossed from wave to wave, the raft was inclined to an
angle of more than forty-five degrees, making it impossible
for them to keep their footing, and rolling one over another,
they were thrown down by the violent shocks. Why they
were not altogether carried away, why we were not all
hurled into the sea, was to me a mystery. Even if the cords
that bound us should retain their hold, it seemed perfectly
incredible that the raft itself should not be overturned, so
that we should be carried down and stifled in the seething
waters.

At last, toward three in the morning, when the hurricane
seemed to be raging more fiercely than ever, the raft, caught
up on the crest of an enormous wave, stood literally per-
pendicularly on its edge. For an instant, by the illumina-
tion of the lightning, we beheld ourselves raised to an in-
comprehensible height above the foaming breakers. Cries
of terror escaped our lips. All must be over now! But
no; another moment, and the raft had resumed its horizontal
position. Safe, indeed, we were, but the tremendous up-
heaval was not without its melancholy consequences.

The cords that secured the cases of provisions had burst
asunder. One case rolled overboard, and the side of one
of the water-barrels was staved in, so that the water which
it contained was rapidly escaping. Two of the sailors
rushed forward to rescue the case of preserved meat; but
one of them caught his foot between the planks of the plat-
form, and, unable to disengage it, the poor fellow stood
uttering cries of distress.

I tried to go to his assistance, and had already untied
the cord that was around me; but I was too late.

Another heavy sea dashed over us, and by the light of a
dazzling flash I saw the unhappy man, although he had
managed without assistance to disengage his foot, washed
overboard before it was in my power to get near him. His
companion had also disappeared.

The same ponderous wave laid me prostrate on the plat-
form, and as my head came in collision with the corner of
a spar, for a time I lost all consciousness.


CHAPTER XXXVI
WE LOSE NEARLY ALL OUR PROVISIONS

DECEMBER 22. -- Daylight came at length, and the sun
broke through and dispersed the clouds that the storm had
left behind. The struggle of the elements, while it lasted,
had been terrific, but the swoon into which I was thrown
by my fall prevented me from observing the final incidents
of the visitation. All that I know is, that shortly after we
had shipped the heavy sea, that I have mentioned, a shower
of rain had the effect of calming the severity of the hurri-
cane, and tended to diminish the electric tension of the
atmosphere.

Thanks to the kind care of M. Letourneur and Miss Her-
bey, I recovered consciousness, but I believe that it is to
Robert Curtis that I owe my real deliverance, for he it was
that prevented me from being carried away by a second
heavy wave.

The tempest, fierce as it was, did not last more than a few
hours; but even in that short space of time what an irrepar-
able loss we have sustained, and what a load of misery seems
stored up for us in the future!

Of the two sailors who perished in the storm, one was
Austin, a fine active young man of about eight-and-twenty;
the other was old O'Ready, the survivor of so many ship-
wrecks. Our party is thus reduced to sixteen souls, leav-
ing a total barely exceeding half the number of those who
embarked on board the Chancellor at Charleston.

Curtis's first care had been to take a strict account of
the remnant of our provisions. Of all the torrents of rain
that fell in the night we were unhappily unable to catch a
single drop; but water will not fail us yet, for about four-
teen gallons still remain in the bottom of the broken barrel,
while the second barrel has not been touched. But of food
we have next to nothing. The cases containing the dried
meat, and the fish that we had preserved, have both been
washed away, and all that now remains to us is about sixty
pounds of biscuit. Sixty pounds of biscuit between sixteen
persons! Eight days, with half a pound a day apiece, will
consume it all.

The day has passed away in silence. A general depres-
sion has fallen upon all; the specter of famine has appeared
among us, and each has remained wrapped in his own
gloomy meditations, though each has doubtless but one idea
dominant in his mind.

Once, as I passed near the group of sailors lying on the
fore part of the raft, I heard Flaypole say with a sneer:

"Those who are going to die had better make haste about
it."

"Yes," said Owen, "and leave their share of food to
others."

At the regular hour each person received his half-pound
of biscuit.   Some, I noticed, swallowed it ravenously;
others reserved it for another time. Falsten divided his
ration into several portions, corresponding, I believe, to the
number of meals to which he was ordinarily accustomed.
What prudence he shows! If any one survives this misery,
I think it will be he.


CHAPTER XXXVII
LIEUTENANT WALTER'S CONDITION

DECEMBER 23 to 30. -- After the storm the wind settled
back into its old quarter, blowing pretty briskly from the
northeast. As the breeze was all in our favor it was im-
portant to make the most of it, and after Dowlas had care-
fully readjusted the mast, the sail was once more hoisted,
and we were carried along at the rate of two or two and a
half knots an hour. A new rudder, formed of a spar and
a good-sized plank, has been fitted in the place of the one
we lost, but with the wind in its present quarter it is in
little requisition. The platform of the raft has been re-
paired, the disjointed planks have been closed by means of
ropes and wedges, and that portion of the parapet that was
washed away has been replaced, so that we are no longer
wetted by the waves. In fact, nothing has been left undone
to insure the solidity of our raft, and to render it capable
of resisting the wear and tear of the wind and waves. But
the dangers of wind and waves are not those which we have
most to dread.

Together with the unclouded sky came a return of the
tropical heat, which during the preceding days had caused
us such serious inconvenience; fortunately on the 23d the
excessive warmth was somewhat tempered by the breeze,
and as the tent was once again put up, we were able to find
shelter under it by turns.

But the want of food was beginning to tell upon us sadly,
and our sunken cheeks and wasted forms were visible
tokens of what we were enduring. With most of us hunger
seemed to attack the entire nervous system, and the con-
striction of the stomach produced an acute sensation of
pain. A narcotic, such as opium or tobacco, might have
availed to soothe, if not to cure, the gnawing agony; but of
sedatives we had none, so the pain must be endured.

One alone there was among us who did not feel the pangs
of hunger. Lieutenant Walter seemed as it were to feed
upon the fever that raged within him; but then he was the
victim of the most torturing thirst. Miss Herbey, besides
reserving for him a portion of her own insufficient allowance,
obtained from the captain a small extra supply of water with
which every quarter of an hour she moistened the parched
lips of the young man, who, almost too weak to speak, could
only express his thanks by a grateful smile. Poor fellow!
all our care cannot avail to save him now; he is doomed,
most surely doomed to die.

On the 23d he seemed to be conscious of his condition,
for he made a sign to me to sit down by his side, and then
summoning up all his strength to speak, he asked me in a
few broken words how long I thought he had to live?

Slight as my hesitation was, Walter noticed it immed-
iately.

"The truth," he said; "tell me the plain truth."

"My dear fellow, I am not a doctor, you know," I be-
gan," and I can scarcely judge --"

"Never mind," he interrupted, "tell me just what you
think."

I looked at him attentively for some moments, then laid
my ear against his chest. In the last few days his malady
had made fearfully rapid strides, and it was only too evi-
dent that one lung had already ceased to act, while the other
was scarcely capable of performing the work of respiration.
The young man was now suffering from the fever which is
the sure symptom of the approaching end in all tuberculous
complaints.

The lieutenant kept his eye fixed upon me with a look of
eager inquiry. I knew not what to say, and sought to evade
his question.

"My dear boy," I said, "in our present circumstances not
one of us can tell how long he has to live. Not one of us
knows what may happen in the course of the next eight
days."

"The next eight days," he murmured, as he looked
eagerly into my face.

And then, turning away his head, he seemed to fall into
a sort of doze.

The 24th, 25th, and 26th passed without any alteration
in our circumstances, and strange, nay, incredible as it may
sound, we began to get accustomed to our condition of star-
vation. Often, when reading the histories of shipwrecks,
I have suspected the accounts to be greatly exaggerated; but
now I fully realize their truth, and marvel when I find on
how little nutriment it is possible to exist for so long a time.
To our daily half-pound of biscuit the captain has thought
to add a few drops of brandy, and the stimulant helps con-
siderably to sustain our strength. If we had the same pro-
visions for two months, or even for one, there might be
room for hope; but our supplies diminish rapidly, and the
time is fast approaching when of food and drink there will
be none.

The sea had furnished us with food once, and, difficult
as the task of fishing had now become, at all hazards the
attempt must be made again. Accordingly the carpenter
and the boatswain set to work and made lines out of some
untwisted hemp, to which they fixed some nails that they
pulled out of the flooring of the raft, and bent into proper
shape. The boatswain regarded his device with evident
satisfaction.

"I don't mean to say," said he to me, "that these nails
are first-rate fish-hooks; but, one thing I do know, and that
is, with proper bait they will act as well as the best. But
this biscuit is no good at all. Let me but just get hold of
one fish, and I shall know fast enough how to use it to catch
some more."

And the true difficulty was how to catch the first fish. It
was evident that fish were not abundant in these waters,
nevertheless the lines were cast. But the biscuit with which
they were baited dissolved at once in the water, and we did
not get a single bite. For two days the attempt was made
in vain, and as it only involved what seemed a lavish waste
of our only means of subsistence, it was given up in de-
spair.

To-day, the 30th, as a last resource, the boatswain tried
what a piece of colored rag might do by way of attracting
some voracious fish, and having obtained from Miss Her-
bey a little piece of the red shawl she wears, he fastened it
to his hook. But still no success; for when, after several
hours, he examined his lines, the crimson shred was still
hanging intact as he had fixed it. The man was quite dis-
couraged at his failure.

"But there will be plenty of bait before long," he said
to me in a solemn undertone.

"What do you mean?" said I, struck by his significant
manner.

"You'll know soon enough," he answered.

What did he insinuate? The words, coming from a man
usually so reserved, have haunted me all night.


CHAPTER XXXVIII
MUTINY AGAIN

JANUARY 1 to 5. -- More than three months had elapsed
since we left Charleston in the Chancellor, and for no less
than twenty days had we now been borne along on our raft
at the mercy of the wind and waves. Whether we were
approaching the American coast, or whether we were drift-
ing farther and farther to sea, it was now impossible to de-
termine, for, in addition to the other disasters caused by the
hurricane, the captain's instruments had been hopelessly
smashed, and Curtis had no longer any compass by which
to direct his course, nor a sextant by which he might make
an observation.

Desperate, however, as our condition might be judged,
hope did not entirely abandon our hearts, and day after
day, hour after hour were our eyes strained toward the far
horizon, and many and many a time did our imagination
shape out the distant land. But ever and again the illusion
vanished; a cloud, a mist, perhaps even a wave, was all that
had deceived us; no land, no sail ever broke the gray line
that united sea and sky, and our raft remained the center of
the wide and dreary waste.

On the 1st of January, we swallowed our last morsel of
biscuit. The first of January! New Year's Day! What
a rush of sorrowful recollections overwhelmed our minds!
Had we not always associated the opening of another year
with new hopes, new plans, and coming joys? And now,
where were we? Could we dare to look at one another,
and breathe a New Year's greeting?

The boatswain approached me with a peculiar look on
his countenance.

"You are surely not going to wish me a happy New
Year?" I said.

"No indeed, sir," he replied, "I was only going to wish
you well through the first day of it; and that is pretty good
assurance on my part, for we have not another crumb to
eat."

True as it was, we scarcely realized the fact of there being
actually nothing until on the following morning the hour
came round for the distribution of the scanty ration, and
then, indeed, the truth was forced upon us in a new and
startling light. Toward evening I was seized with violent
pains in the stomach, accompanied by a constant desire to
yawn and gape that was most distressing; but in a couple
of hours the extreme agony passed away, and on the 3d I
was surprised to find that I did not suffer more. I felt, it
is true, that there was some great void within myself, but
the sensation was quite as much moral as physical. My
head was so heavy that I could not hold it up; it was swim-
ming with giddiness, as though I were looking over a
precipice.

My symptoms were not shared by all my companions,
some of whom endured the most frightful tortures. Dow-
las and the boatswain especially, who were naturally large
eaters, uttered involuntary cries of agony, and were obliged
to gird themselves tightly with ropes to subdue the excru-
ciating pain that was gnawing their very vitals.

And this was only the second day of our misery! What
would we not have given for half, nay, for a quarter of the
meager ration which a few days back we deemed so inade-
quate to supply our wants, and which now, eked out crumb
by crumb, might, perhaps, serve for several days? In the
streets of a besieged city, dire as the distress may be, some
gutter, some rubbish-heap, some corner may yet be found
that will furnish a dry bone or a scrap of refuse that may
for a moment allay the pangs of hunger; but these bare
planks, so many times washed clean by the relentless waves,
offer nothing to our eager search, and after every fragment
of food that the wind has carried into the interstices has
been scraped out and devoured, our resources are literally
at an end.

The nights seem even longer than the days. Sleep, when
it comes, brings no relief; it is rather a feverish stupor,
broken and disturbed by frightful nightmares. Last night,
however, overcome by fatigue, I managed to rest for sev-
eral hours.

At six o'clock this morning I was roused by the sound
of angry voices, and, starting up, I saw Owen and
Jynxstrop, with Flaypole, Wilson, Burke, and Sandon,
standing in a threatening attitude. They had taken posses-
sion of the carpenter's tools, and now, armed with hatchets,
chisels, and hammers, they were preparing to attack
the captain, the boatswain, and Dowlas. I attached myself
in a moment to Curtis's party. Falsten followed my ex-
ample, and although our knives were the only weapons at
our disposal, we were ready to defend ourselves to the very
last extremity.

Owen and his men advanced toward us. The miserable
wretches were all drunk, for during the night they had
knocked a hole in the brandy-barrel, and had recklessly swal-
lowed its contents. What they wanted they scarcely seemed
to know, but Owen and Jynxstrop, not quite so much intox-
icated as the rest, seemed to be urging them on to massacre
the captain and the officers.

"Down with the captain! Overboard with Curtis!
Owen shall take the command!" they shouted from time to
time in their drunken fury; and, armed as they were, they
appeared completely masters of the situation.

"Now, then, down with your arms!" said Curtis sternly,
as he advanced to meet them.

"Overboard with the captain!" howled Owen, as by word
and gesture he urged on his accomplices.

Curtis pushed aside the excited rascals, and, walking
straight up to Owen, asked him what he wanted.

"What do we want? Why, we want no more captains;
we are all equals now."

Poor stupid fool! as though misery and privation had not
already reduced us all to the same level.

"Owen," said the captain once again, "down with your
arms!"

"Come on, all of you," shouted Owen to his companions,
without giving the slightest heed to Curtis's words.

A regular struggle ensued. Owen and Wilson attacked
Curtis, who defended himself with a piece of spar; Burke
and Flaypole rushed upon Falsten and the boatswain, while
I was left to confront the negro Jynxstrop, who attempted to
strike me with the hammer which he brandished in his hand.
I endeavored to paralyze his movements by pinioning his
arms, but the rascal was my superior in muscular strength.
After wrestling for a few minutes, I felt that he was getting
the mastery over me, when all of a sudden he rolled over
on to the platform, dragging me with him. Andre Letour-
neur had caught hold of one of his legs, and thus saved my
life. Jynxstrop dropped his weapon in his fall; I seized it
instantly, and was about to cleave the fellow's skull, when I
was myself arrested by Andre's hand upon my arm.

By this time the mutineers had been driven back to the
forepart of the raft, and Curtis, who had managed to parry
the blows which had been aimed at him, had caught hold of
a hatchet, with which he was preparing to strike Owen.
But Owen made a sidelong movement to avoid the blow, and
the weapon caught Wilson full in the chest. The unfor-
tunate man rolled over the side of the raft and instantly dis-
appeared.

"Save him! save him!" shouted the boatswain.

"It's too late; he's dead! " said Dowlas.

"Ah, well! he'll do for --" began the boatswain; but he
did not finish his sentence.

Wilson's death, however, put an end to the fray. Flay-
pole and Burke were lying prostrate in a drunken stupor, and
Jynxstrop was soon overpowered, and lashed tightly to the
foot of the mast. The carpenter and boatswain seized hold
of Owen.

"Now then," said Curtis, as he raised his blood-stained
hatchet, "make your peace with God, for you have not a
moment to live."

"Oh, you want to eat me, do you?" sneered Owen, with
the most hardened effrontery.

But the audacious reply saved his life; Curtis turned as
pale as death, the hatchet dropped from his hand, and he
went and seated himself moodily on the farthest corner of
the raft.


CHAPTER XXXIX
A FATHER'S LOVE

JANUARY 5 and 6. -- The whole scene made a deep impres-
sion on our minds, and Owen's speech coming as a sort of
climax, brought before us our misery with a force that was
well-nigh overwhelming.

As soon as I recovered my composure, I did not forget to
thank Andre Letourneur for the act of intervention that
had saved my life.

"Do you thank me for that, Mr. Kazallon?" he said; "it
has only served to prolong your misery."

"Never mind, M. Letourneur," said Miss Herbey; "you
did your duty."

Enfeebled and emaciated as the young girl is, her sense
of duty never deserts her; and although her torn and be-
draggled garments float dejectedly about her body, she never
utters a word of complaint, and never loses courage.

"Mr. Kazallon," she said to me, "do you think we are
fated to die of hunger?"

"Yes, Miss Herbey, I do," I replied, in a hard, cold tone.

"How long do you suppose we have to live?" she asked
again.

"I cannot say; perhaps we shall linger on longer than we
imagine."

"The strongest constitutions suffer the most, do they
not?" she said.

"Yes; but they have one consolation -- they die the soon-
est," I replied, coldly.

Had every spark of humanity died out of my breast, that
I thus brought the girl face to face with the terrible truth,
without a word of hope or comfort? The eyes of Andre
and his father, dilated with hunger, were fixed upon me, and
I saw reproach and astonishment written in their faces.

Afterward, when we were quite alone, Miss Herbey asked
me if I would grant her a favor.

"Certainly, Miss Herbey; anything you like to ask," I
replied; and this time my manner was kinder and more
genial.

"Mr. Kazallon," she said, "I am weaker than you, and
shall probably die first. Promise me that, if I do, you will
throw me into the sea!"

"Oh, Miss Herbey," I began, "it was very wrong of me
to speak to you as I did!"

"No, no," she replied, half smiling; "you were quite
right. But it is a weakness of mine; I don't mind what they
do with me as long as I am alive, but when I am dead --"
She stopped and shuddered. "Oh, promise me that you will
throw me into the sea!"

I gave her the melancholy promise, which she acknowl-
edged by pressing my hand feebly with her emaciated fingers.

Another night passed away. At times my sufferings were
so intense that cries of agony involuntarily escaped my lips;
then I became calmer, and sank into a kind of lethargy.
When I awoke, I was surprised to find my companions still
alive.

The one of our party who seems to bear his privations
the best is Hobart the steward, a man with whom hitherto
I have had very little to do. He is small, with a fawning
expression remarkable for its indecision, and has a smile
which is incessantly playing round his lips; he goes about
with his eyes half closed, as though he wished to conceal his
thoughts, and there is something altogether false and
hypocritical about his whole demeanor. I cannot say that
he bears his privations without a murmur, for he sighs and
moans incessantly; but, with it all, I cannot but think that
there is a want of genuineness in his manner, and that the
privation has not really told upon him as much as it has
upon the rest of us. I have my suspicions about the man,
and intend to watch him carefully.

To-day, the 6th, M. Letourneur drew me aside to the stern
of the raft, saying he had a secret to communicate, but that
he wished neither to be seen nor heard speaking to me. I
withdrew with him to the larboard corner of the raft, and, as
it was growing dusk, nobody observed what we were doing.

"Mr. Kazallon," M. Letourneur began, in a low voice,
"Andre is dying of hunger; he is growing weaker and
weaker, and oh! I cannot, will not, see him die!"

He spoke passionately, almost fiercely, and I fully under-
stood his feelings. Taking his hand, I tried to reassure him.

"We will not despair yet," I said; "perhaps some pass-
ing ship --"

"Ship!" he cried, impatiently, "don't try to console me
with empty commonplaces; you know as well as I do that
there is no chance of falling in with a passing ship." Then,
breaking off suddenly, he asked: "How long is it since my
son and all of you have had anything to eat?"

Astonished at his question, I replied that it was now four
days since the biscuit had failed.

"Four days," he repeated; "well, then, it is eight since I
have tasted anything. I have been saving my share for my
son."

Tears rushed to my eyes; for a few moments I was unable
to speak, and could only once more grasp his hand in silence.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked, at length.

"Hush! not so loud; someone will hear us," he said, low-
ering his voice; "I want you to offer it to Andre as though
it came from yourself. He would not accept it from me; he
would think I had been depriving myself for him. Let me
implore you to do me this service; and for your trouble," --
and here he gently stroked my hand -- "for your trouble you
shall have a morsel for yourself."

I trembled like a child as I listened to the poor father's
words; and my heart was ready to burst when I felt a tiny
piece of biscuit slipped into my hand.

"Give it him," M. Letourneur went on under his breath,
"give it him; but do not let anyone see you; the monsters
would murder you if they knew it! This is only for to-
day; I will give you some more to-morrow."

The poor fellow did not trust me -- and well he might not
-- for I had the greatest difficulty to withstand the tempta-
tion to carry the biscuit to my mouth. But I resisted the
impulse, and those alone who have suffered like me can know
what the effort was.

Night came on with the rapidity peculiar to these low lati-
tudes, and I glided gently up to Andre, and slipped the piece
of biscuit into his hand as "a present from myself."

The young man clutched at it eagerly.

"But my father?" he said, inquiringly.

I assured him that his father and I had each had our
share, and that he must eat this now, and perhaps I should
be able to bring him some more another time. Andre asked
no more questions, and eagerly devoured the morsel of food.

So this evening at least, notwithstanding M. Letourneur's
offer, I have tasted nothing.


CHAPTER XL
DEATH OF LIEUTENANT WALTER

JANUARY 7. -- During the last few days, since the wind
has freshened, the salt water constantly dashing over the
raft has terribly punished the feet and legs of some of the
sailors. Owen, whom the boatswain ever since the revolt has
kept bound to the mast, is in a deplorable state, and, at our
request, has been released from his restraint. Sandon and
Burke are also suffering from the severe smarting caused in
this way, and it is only owing to our more sheltered position
on the aft-part of the raft, that we have not all shared the
same inconvenience.

To-day the boatswain, maddened by starvation, laid hands
upon everything that met his voracious eyes, and I could
hear the grating of his teeth as he gnawed at fragments of
sails and bits of wood, instinctively endeavoring to fill his
stomach by putting the mucus into circulation. At length,
by dint of an eager search, he came upon a piece of leather
hanging to one of the spars that supported the platform.
He snatched it off and devoured it greedily; and, as it was
animal matter, it really seemed as though the absorption of
the substance afforded him some temporary relief. In-
stantly we all followed his example; a leather hat, the rims
of caps, in short, anything that contained any animal matter
at all, were gnawed and sucked with the utmost avidity.
Never shall I forget the scene. We were no longer human
-- the impulses and instincts of brute beasts seemed to
actuate our every movement.

For a moment the pangs of hunger were somewhat
allayed; but some of us revolted against the loathsome food,
and were seized either with violent nausea or absolute sick-
ness. I must be pardoned for giving these distressing de-
tails; but how otherwise can I depict the misery, moral and
physical, which we are enduring? And with it all, I dare
not venture to hope that we have reached the climax of our
sufferings.

The conduct of Hobart, during the scene that I have just
described, has only served to confirm my previous suspicions
of him. He took no part in the almost fiendish energy with
which we gnawed at our scraps of leather; and, although by
his conduct of perpetual groanings, he might be considered
to be dying of inanition, yet to me he has the appearance
of being singularly exempt from the tortures which we are
all enduring. But whether the hypocrite is being sustained
by some secret store of food, I have been unable to discover.

Whenever the breeze drops the heat is overpowering; but
although our allowance of water is very meager, at present
the pangs of hunger far exceed the pain of thirst. It has
often been remarked that extreme thirst is far less endurable
than extreme hunger. Is it possible that still greater agonies
are in store for us? I cannot, dare not, believe it. For-
tunately, the broken barrel still contains a few pints of water,
and the other one has not yet been opened. But I am glad
to say that notwithstanding our diminished numbers, and in
spite of some opposition, the captain has thought right to
reduce the daily allowance to half a pint for each person.
As for the brandy, of which there is only a quart now left,
it has been stowed away safely in the stern of the raft.

This evening has ended the sufferings of another of our
companions, making our number now only fourteen. My
attentions and Miss Herbey's nursing could do nothing for
Lieutenant Walter, and about half-past seven he expired in
my arms.

Before he died, in a few broken words, he thanked Miss
Herbey and myself for the kindness we had shown him. A
crumpled letter fell from his hand, and in a voice that was
scarcely audible from weakness, he said :

"It is my mother's letter; the last I had from her -- she
was expecting me home; but she will never see me more.
Oh, put it to my lips -- let me kiss it before I die. Mother!
mother! Oh, my God!"

I placed the letter in his cold hand, and raised it to his
lips; his eye lighted for a moment; we heard the faint sound
of a kiss; and all was over!


CHAPTER XLI
HUMAN FLESH FOR BAIT

JANUARY 8. -- All night I remained by the side of the poor
fellow's corpse, and several times Miss Herbey joined me
in my mournful watch.

Before daylight dawned, the body was quite cold, and as
I knew there must be no delay in throwing it overboard, I
asked Curtis to assist me in the sad office. The body was
frightfully emaciated, and I had every hope that it would not
float.

As soon as it was quite light, taking every precaution that
no one should see what we were about, Curtis and I pro-
ceeded to our melancholy task. We took a few articles from
the lieutenant's pockets, which we purposed, if either of us
should survive, to remit to his mother. But as we wrapped
him in his tattered garments that would have to suffice for
his winding sheet, I started back with a thrill of horror. The
right foot had gone, leaving the leg a bleeding stump.

No doubt that, overcome by fatigue, I must have fallen
asleep for an interval during the night, and some one had
taken advantage of my slumber to mutilate the corpse. But
who could have been guilty of so foul a deed? Curtis
looked around with anger flashing in his eye; but all seemed
as usual, and the silence was only broken by a few groans of
agony.

But there was no time to be lost; perhaps we were already
observed, and more horrible scenes might be likely to occur.
Curtis said a few short prayers, and we cast the body into the
sea. It sank immediately.

"They are feeding the sharks well, and no mistake," said
a voice behind me.

I turned round quickly, and found that it was Jynxstrop
who had spoken.

As the boatswain now approached, I asked him whether
he thought it possible that any of the wretched men could
have taken the dead man's foot.

"Oh, yes, I dare say," he replied in a significant tone,
"and perhaps they thought they were right."

"Right! what do you mean?" I exclaimed.

"Well, sir," he said coldly, "isn't it better to eat a dead
man than a living one?"

I was at a loss to comprehend him, and, turning away, laid
myself down at the end of the raft.

Toward eleven o'clock a most suspicious incident occurred.
The boatswain, who had cast his lines early in the morning,
caught three large cod, each more than thirty inches long, of
the species which, when dried, is known by the name of
stock-fish. Scarcely had he hauled them on board when the
sailors made a dash at them, and it was with the utmost dif-
ficulty that Curtis, Falsten and myself could restore order, so
that we might divide the fish into equal portions. Three
cod were not much among fourteen starving persons, but,
small as the quantity was, it was allotted in strictly equal
shares. Most of us devoured the food raw, almost I might
say, alive; only Curtis, Andre, and Miss Herbey having the
patience to wait until their allowance had been boiled at a
fire which they made with a few scraps of wood. For my-
self, I confess that I swallowed my portion of fish as it was
-- raw and bleeding. M. Letourneur followed my example;
the poor man devoured his food like a famished wolf, and it
is only a wonder to me how, after his lengthened fast, he
came to be alive at all.

The boatswain's delight at his success was excessive, and
amounted almost to delirium. I went up to him, and en-
couraged him to repeat his attempt.

"Oh, yes," he said; "I'll try again. I'll try again."

"And why not try at once?" I asked.

"Not now," he said evasively; "the night is the best time
for catching large fish. Besides, I must manage to get
some bait, for we have been improvident enough not to save
a single scrap."

"But you have succeeded once without bait; why may you
not succeed again?"

"Oh, I had some very good bait last night," he said.

I stared at him in amazement. He steadily returned my
gaze, but said nothing.

"Have you none left?" at last I asked.

"Yes!" he almost whispered, and left me without another
word.

Our meal, meager as it had been, served to rally our shat-
tered energies; our hopes were slightly raised; there was no
reason why the boatswain should not have the same good
luck again.

One evidence of the degree to which our spirits were re-
vived was that our minds were no longer fixed upon the
miserable present and hopeless future, but we began to recall
and discuss the past; and M. Letourneur, Andre, Mr. Fal-
sten and I, held a long conversation with the captain about
the various incidents of our eventful voyage, speaking of
our lost companions, of the fire, or the stranding of the ship,
of our sojourn on Ham Rock, of the springing of the leak, of
our terrible voyage in the top-masts, of the construction of
the raft, and of the storm. All these things seemed to have
happened so long ago, and yet we were living still. Living,
did I say? Ay, if such an existence as ours could be called
a life, fourteen of us were living still. Who would be the
next to go? We should then be thirteen.

"An unlucky number!" said Andre, with a mournful
smile.

During the night the boatswain cast his lines from the
stern of the raft, and, unwilling to trust them to anyone
else, remained watching them himself. In the morning I
went to ascertain what success had attended his patience. It
was scarcely light, and with eager eyes he was peering down
into the water. He had neither seen nor heard me coming.

"Well, boatswain!" I said, touching him on the shoulder.

He turned round quickly.

"Those villainous sharks have eaten every morsel of my
bait," he said, in a desponding voice.

"And you have no more left?" I asked.

"No more," he said. Then grasping my arm, he added,
"and that only shows me that it is no good doing things by
halves."

The truth flashed upon me at once, and I laid my hand
upon his mouth. Poor Walter!


CHAPTER XLII
OXIDE OF COPPER POISONING

JANUARY 9 and10. -- On the 9th the wind dropped, and
there was a dead calm; not a ripple disturbed the surface of
the long undulations as they rose and fell beneath us; and if
it were not for the slight current which is carrying us we
know not whither, the raft would be absolutely stationary.

The heat was intolerable; our thirst more intolerable still;
and now it was that for the first time I fully realized how the
insufficiency of drink could cause torture more unendurable
than the pangs of hunger. Mouth, throat, pharynx, all alike
were parched and dry, every gland becoming hard as horn
under the action of the hot air we breathed. At my urgent
solicitation, the captain was for once induced to double our
allowance of water; and this relaxation of the ordinary rule
enabled us to attempt to slake our thirst four times in the day,
instead of only twice. I use the word "attempt" advisedly;
for the water at the bottom of the barrel though kept covered
by a sail, became so warm that it was perfectly flat and
unrefreshing.

It was a most trying day, and the sailors relapsed into a
condition of deep despondency. The moon was nearly full,
but when she rose the breeze did not return. Continuance
of high temperature in daytime is a sure proof that we have
been carried far to the south, and here, on this illimitable
ocean, we have long ceased even to look for land; it might
almost seem as though this globe of ours had veritably be-
come a liquid sphere!

To-day we are still becalmed, and the temperature is as
high as ever. The air is heated like a furnace, and the sun
scorches like fire. The torments of famine are all forgotten;
our thoughts are concentrated with fevered expectation upon
the longed-for moment when Curtis shall dole out the scanty
measure of lukewarm water that makes up our ration. Oh
for one good draught, even if it should exhaust the whole
supply! At least, it seems as if we then could die in peace!

About noon we were startled by sharp cries of agony,
and looking round, I saw Owen writhing in the most horrible
convulsions. I went toward him, for, detestable as his con-
duct had been, common humanity prompted me to see
whether I could afford him any relief. But before I reached
him, a shout from Flaypole arrested my attention. The
man was up in the mast, and with great excitement pointing
to the east.

"A ship! A ship!" he cried.

In an instant all were on their feet. Even Owen stopped
his cries and stood erect. It was quite true that in the direc-
tion indicated by Flaypole there was a white speck visible
upon the horizon. But did it move? Would the sailors
with their keen vision pronounce it to be a sail? A silence
the most profound fell upon us all. I glanced at Curtis as
he stood with folded arms intently gazing at the distant
point. His brow was furrowed, and he contracted every fea-
ture, as with half-closed eyes he concentrated his power of
vision upon that one faint spot in the far off horizon.

But at length he dropped his arms and shook his head. I
looked again, but the spot was no longer there. If it were
a ship, that ship had disappeared; but probably it had been a
mere reflection, or, more likely still, only the crest of some
curling wave.

A deep dejection followed this phantom ray of hope. All
returned to their accustomed places. Curtis alone remained
motionless, but his eye no longer scanned the distant view.

Owen now began to shriek more wildly than ever. He
presented truly a most melancholy sight; he writhed with the
most hideous contortions, and had all the appearance of
suffering from tetanus. His throat was contracted by re-
peated spasms, his tongue was parched, his body swollen, and
his pulse, though feeble, was rapid and irregular. The poor
wretch's symptoms were precisely such as to lead us to sus-
pect that he had taken some corrosive poison. Of course it
was quite out of our power to administer any antidote; all
that we could devise was to make him swallow something
that might act as an emetic. I asked Curtis for a little of
the lukewarm water. As the contents of the broken barrel
were now exhausted, the captain, in order to comply with my
request, was about to tap the other barrel, when Owen
started suddenly to his knees, and with a wild, unearthly
shriek, exclaimed:

"No! no! no! of that water I will not touch a drop."

I supposed he did not understand what we were going to
do, and endeavored to explain; but all in vain; he persisted
in refusing to taste the water in the second barrel. I then
tried to induce vomiting by tickling his uvula, and he brought
off some bluish secretion from his stomach, the character of
which confirmed our previous suspicions -- that he had been
poisoned by oxide of copper. We now felt convinced that
any effort on our part to save him would be of no avail.
The vomiting, however, had for the time relieved him, and
he was able to speak.

Curtis and I both implored him to let us know what he
had taken to bring about consequences so serious. His reply
fell upon us as a startling blow.

The ill-fated wretch had stolen several pints of water from
the barrel that had been untouched, and that water had
poisoned him!


CHAPTER XLIII
OWEN'S DEATH

JANUARY 11 to 14. -- Owen's convulsions returned with in-
creased violence, and in the course of the night he expired
in terrible agony. His body was thrown overboard almost
directly, it had decomposed so rapidly that the flesh had not
even consistency enough for any fragments of it to be re-
served for the boatswain to use to bait his lines. A plague
the man had been to us in his life; in his death he was now
of no service!

And now, perhaps still more than ever, did the horror of
our situation stare us in the face. There was no doubt
that the poisoned barrel had at some time or other contained
copperas; but what strange fatality had converted it into a
water cask, or what fatality, stranger still, had caused it to
be brought on board the raft, was a problem that none could
solve. Little, however, did it matter now; the fact was evi-
dent -- the barrel was poisoned, and of water we had not a
drop.

One and all, we fell into the gloomiest silence. We were
too irritable to bear the sound of each other's voices; and it
did not require a word -- a mere look or gesture was enough
-- to provoke us to anger that was little short of madness.
How it was that we did not all become raving maniacs, I can-
not tell.

Throughout the 12th no drain of moisture crossed our
lips, and not a cloud arose to warrant the expectation of a
passing shower; in the shade, if shade it might be called, the
thermometer would have registered at least 100 deg., and per-
haps considerably more.

No change next day. The salt water began to chafe my
legs, but although the smarting was at times severe, it was an
inconvenience to which I gave little heed; others who had
suffered from the same trouble had become no worse. Oh!
if this water that surrounds us could be reduced to vapor
or to ice! its particles of salt extracted, it would be available
for drink. But no! we have no appliances, and we must
suffer on.

At the risk of being devoured by the sharks, the boat-
swain and two sailors took a morning bath, and as their
plunge seemed to freshen them, I and three of my com-
panions resolved to follow their example. We had never
learned to swim, and had to be fastened to the end of a rope
and lowered into the water, while Curtis, during the half
hour of our bath, kept a sharp lookout to give warning of
any danger from approaching sharks. No recommenda-
tion, however, on our part, nor any representation of the
benefit we felt we had derived, could induce Miss Herbey
to allay her sufferings in the same way.

At about eleven o'clock, the captain came up to me, and
whispered in my ear:

"Don't say a word, Mr. Kazallon; I do not want to raise
false hopes, but I think I see a ship."

It was as well that the captain had warned me; otherwise,
I should have raised an involuntary shout of joy; as it was
I had the greatest difficulty in restraining my expressions of
delight.

"Look behind to larboard," he continued in an undertone.

Affecting an indifference which I was far from feeling, I
cast an anxious glance to that quarter of the horizon of
which he spoke, and there, although mine was not a nautical
eye, I could plainly distinguish the outline of a ship under
sail.

Almost at the same moment the boatswain who happened
to be looking in the same direction, raised the cry, "Ship
ahoy!"

Whether it was that no one believed it, or whether all
energies were exhausted, certain it is that the announcement
produced none of the effects that might have been expected.
Not a soul exhibited the slightest emotion, and it was only
when the boatswain had several times sung out his tidings
that all eyes turned to the horizon. There, most undeniably,
was the ship, but the question rose at once to the minds of
all, and to the lips of many, "Would she see us?"

The sailors immediately began discussing the build of the
vessel, and made all sorts of conjectures as to the direction
she was taking. Curtis was far more deliberate in his judg-
ment. After examining her attentively for some time, he
said, "She is a brig running close upon the wind, on the star-
board tack. If she keeps her course for a couple of hours,
she will come right athwart our tracks."

A couple of hours! The words sounded to our ears like
a couple of centuries. The ship might change her course
at any moment; closely trimmed as she was, it was very
probable that she was only tacking about to catch the wind,
in which case, as soon as she felt a breeze, she would r­sum­
her larboard tack and make away again. On the other hand,
if she was really sailing with the wind, she would come
nearer to us, and there would be good ground for hope.

Meantime, no exertion must be spared, and no means left
untried, to make our position known. The brig was about
twelve miles to the east of us, so that it was out of the ques-
tion to think of any cries of ours being overheard; but Curtis
gave directions that every possible signal should be made.
We had no firearms by which we could attract attention, and
nothing else occurred to us beyond hoisting a flag of distress.
Miss Herbey's red shawl, as being of a color most distin-
guishable against the background of sea and sky, was run
up to the mast-head, and was caught by the light breeze that
just then was ruffling the surface of the water. As a drown-
ing man clutches at a straw, so our hearts bounded with hope
every time that our poor flag fluttered in the wind.

For an hour our feelings alternated between hope and
despair. The ship was evidently making her way in the di-
rection of the raft, but every now and then she seemed to
stop, and then our hearts would almost stand still with agony
lest she was going to put about. She carried all her canvas,
even to her royals and stay-sails, but her hull was only
partially visible above the horizon.

How slowly she advanced! The breeze was very, very
feeble, and perhaps soon it would drop altogether! We felt
that we would give years of our life to know the result of the
coming hour.

At half past twelve the captain and the boatswain con-
sidered that the brig was about nine miles away; she had,
therefore, gained only three miles in an hour and a half,
and it was doubtful whether the light breeze that had been
passing over our heads had reached her at all. I fancied,
too, that her sails were no longer filled, but were hanging
loose against her masts. Turning to the direction of the
wind, I tried to make out some chance of a rising breeze;
but no, the waves were calm and torpid, and the little puff of
air that had aroused our hopes had died away across the sea.

I stood aft with M. Letourneur, Andre and Miss Herbey,
and our glances perpetually wandered from the distant ship
to our captain's face. Curtis stood leaning against the mast,
with the boatswain by his side; their eyes seemed never for
a moment to cease to watch the brig, but their countenances
clearly expressed the varying emotions that passed through
their minds. Not a word was uttered, nor was the silence
broken, until the carpenter exclaimed, in accents of despair:

"She's putting about!"

All started up -- some to their knees, others to their feet.
The boatswain dropped a frightful oath. The ship was
still nine miles away, and at such a distance it was impossible
for our signal to be seen; our tiny raft, a mere speck upon
the waters, would be lost in the intense irradiation of the sun-
beams. If only we could be seen, no doubt all would be
well; no captain would have the barbarous inhumanity to
leave us to our fate; but there had been no chance; only too
well we knew that we had not been within range of sight.

"My friends," said Curtis, "we must make a fire; it is our
last and only chance."

Some planks were quickly loosened and thrown into a heap
upon the fore part of the raft. They were damp and
troublesome to light; but the very dampness made the smoke
more dense, and ere long a tall column of dusky fumes was
rising straight upward in the air. If darkness should come
on before the brig was completely out of view, the flames,
we hoped might still be visible. But the hours passed on;
the fire died out; and yet no signs of help.

The temper of resignation now deserted me entirely;
faith, hope, confidence -- all vanished from my mind, and,
like the boatswain, I swore long and loudly. A gentle hand
was laid upon my arm, and turning round I saw Miss Herbey
with her finger pointing to the sky. I could stand it no
longer, but gliding underneath the tent I hid my face in my
hands and wept aloud.

Meanwhile the brig had altered her track, and was moving
slowly to the east. Three hours later and the keenest eye
could not have discerned her top-sails above the horizon.


CHAPTER XLIV
THE DEPTHS OF DESPAIR

JANUARY 15. -- After this further shattering of our ex-
cited hopes, death alone now stares us in the face; slow and
lingering as that death may be, sooner or later it must in-
evitably come.

To-day some clouds that rose in the west have brought us
a few puffs of wind; and in spite of our prostration, we ap-
preciate the moderation, slight as it is, in the temperature.
To my parched throat the air seemed a little less trying; but
it is now seven days since the boatswain took his haul of
fish, and during that period we had eaten nothing; even
Andre Letourneur finished yesterday, the last morsel of the
biscuit which his sorrowful and self-denying father had in-
trusted to my charge.

Jynxstrop, the negro, has broken loose from his confine-
ment, but Curtis has taken no measures for putting him
again under restraint. It is not to be apprehended that the
miserable fellow and his accomplices, weakened as they are
by their protracted fast, will attempt to do us any mischief
now.

Some huge sharks made their appearance to-day, cleaving
the water rapidly with their great black fins. The monsters
came up close to the edge of the raft, and Flaypole, who was
leaning over, narrowly escaped having his arm snapped off
by one of them. I could not help regarding them as living
sepulchers, which ere long might swallow up our miserable
carcasses; yet, withal, I profess that my feelings were those
of fascination rather than horror.

The boatswain, who stood with clenched teeth and dilated
eye, regarded these sharks from quite another point of view.
He thought about devouring the sharks, not about the sharks
devouring him; and if he could succeed in catching one, I
doubt if one of us would reject the tough and untempting
flesh. He determined to make the attempt, and as he had
no whirl which he could fasten to his rope he set to work
to find something that might serve as a substitute. Curtis
and Dowlas were consulted, and after a short conversation,
during which they kept throwing bits of rope and spars into
the water in order to entice the sharks to remain by the raft,
Dowlas went and fetched his carpenter's tool, which is at
once a hatchet and a hammer. Of this he proposed to make
the whirl of which they were in need, under the hope that
either the sharp edge of the adze or the pointed extremity
opposite would stick firmly into the jaws of any shark that
might swallow it. The wooden handle of the hammer was
secured to the rope, which, in its turn was tightly fastened
to the raft.

With eager, almost breathless, excitement we stood watch-
ing the preparations, at the same time using every means
in our power to attract the attention of the sharks. As soon
as the whirl was ready the boatswain began to think about
bait, and, talking rapidly to himself, ransacked every corner
of the raft, as though he expected to find some dead body
coming opportunely to sight. But his search ended in noth-
ing; and the only plan that suggested itself was again to
have recourse to Miss Herbey's red shawl, of which a frag-
ment was wrapped around the head of the hammer. After
testing the strength of his line, and reassuring himself that
it was fastened firmly both to the hammer and to the raft,
the boatswain lowered it into the water.

The sea was quite transparent, and any object was clearly
visible to a depth of two hundred feet below the surface.
Leaning over the low parapet of the raft we looked on in
breathless silence, as the scarlet rag, distinct as it was against
the blue mass of water, made its slow descent. But one by
one the sharks seemed to disappear. They could not, how-
ever, have gone far away, and it was not likely that any-
thing in the shape of bait dropped near them would long
escape their keen voracity.

Suddenly, without speaking, the boatswain raised his hand
and pointed to a dark mass skimming along the surface of
the water, and making straight in our direction. It was a
shark, certainly not less than twelve feet long. As soon as
the creature was about four fathoms from the raft, the
boatswain gently drew in his line until the whirl was in such
a position that the shark must cross right over it; at the
same time he shook the line a little, that he might give the
whirl the appearance, if he could, of being something alive
and moving. As the creature came near, my heart beat
violently; I could see its eyes flashing above the waves; and
its gaping jaws, as it turned half over on its back, exhibited
long rows of pointed teeth.

I know not who it was, but some one at that moment
uttered an involuntary cry of horror. The shark came to a
standstill, turned about, and escaped quite out of sight. The
boatswain was pale with anger.

"The first man who speaks," he said, "I will kill him
on the spot."

Again he applied himself to his task. The whirl was
again lowered, this time to the depth of twenty fathoms,
but for half an hour or more not a shark could be distin-
guished; but as the waters far below seemed somehow to
be troubled I could not help believing that some of the
brutes at least were still there.

All at once, with a violent jerk, the cord was wrested from
the boatswain's hands; firmly attached, however, as it was
to the raft, it was not lost. The bait had been seized by a
shark, and the iron had made good its hold upon the crea-
ture's flesh.

"Now, then, my lads," cried the boatswain, "haul away!"

Passengers and sailors, one and all, put forth what
strength they had to drag the rope, but so violent were the
creature's struggles that it required all our efforts (and it is
needless to say they were willing enough) to bring it to the
surface. At length, after exertions that almost exhausted
us, the water became agitated by the violent flappings of the
tail and fins; and looking down I saw the huge carcass of
the shark writhing convulsively amid waves that were
stained with blood.

"Steady! steady!" said the boatswain, as the head ap-
peared above

The whirl had passed right through the jaw into the mid-
dle of the throat, so that no struggle on the part of the ani-
mal could possibly release it. Dowlas seized the hatchet,
ready to dispatch the brute the moment it should be landed
on the raft. A short sharp snap was heard. The shark
had closed its jaws, and bitten through the wooden handle
of the hammer. Another moment and it had turned round
and was completely gone.

A howl of despair burst from all our lips. All the labor
and the patience, all had been in vain. Dowlas made a few
more unsuccessful attempts, but as the whirl was lost, and
they had no means of replacing it, there was no further
room for hope. They did, indeed, lower some cords
twisted into running knots, but (as might have been ex-
pected) these only slipped over, without holding, the slimy
bodies of the sharks. As a last resource the boatswain
allowed his naked leg to hang over the side of the raft;
the monsters, however, were proof even against this at-
traction.

Reduced once again to a gloomy despondency, all turned
to their places, to await the end that can not now be long
deferred.

Just as I moved away I heard the boatswain say to
Curtis:

"Captain, when shall we draw lots?"

The captain made no reply.


CHAPTER XLV
OUR THIRST RELIEVED

JANUARY 16. -- If the crew of any passing vessel had
caught sight of us as we lay still and inanimate upon our
sail-cloth, they would scarcely, at first sight, have hesitated
to pronounce us dead.

My sufferings were terrible; tongue, lips, and throat
were so parched and swollen that if food had been at hand
I question whether I could have swallowed it. So ex-
asperated were the feelings of us all, however, that we
glanced at each other with looks as savage as though we
were about to slaughter and without delay eat up one an-
other.

The heat was aggravated by the atmosphere being some-
what stormy. Heavy vapors gathered on the horizon, and
there was a look as if it were raining all around. Longing
eyes and gasping mouths turned involuntarily toward the
clouds, and M. Letourneur, on bended knee, was raising
his hands, as it might be in supplication to the relentless
skies.

It was eleven o'clock in the morning. I listened for dis-
tant rumblings which might announce an approaching
storm, but although the vapors had obstructed the sun's
rays, they no longer presented the appearance of being
charged with electricity. Thus our prognostications ended
in disappointment; the clouds, which in the early morning
had been marked by the distinctness of their outline, had
melted one into another and assumed an uniform dull gray
tint; in fact, we were enveloped in an ordinary fog. But
was it not still possible that this fog might turn to rain?

Happily this hope was destined to be realized; for in a
very short time, Dowlas, with a shout of delight, declared
that rain was actually coming; and sure enough, not half a
mile from the raft, the dark parallel streaks against the sky
testified that there at least rain was falling. I fancied I
could see the drops rebounding from the surface of the
water. The wind was fresh and bringing the cloud right
on toward us, yet we could not suppress our trepidation
lest it should exhaust itself before it reached us.

But no; very soon large heavy drops began to fall, and
the storm-cloud, passing over our heads, was outpouring
its contents upon us. The shower, however, was very
transient; already a bright streak of light along the horizon
marked the limit of the cloud and warned us that we must
be quick to make the most of what it had to give us. Curtis
had placed the broken barrel in the position that was most
exposed, and every sail was spread out to the fullest extent
our dimensions would allow.

We all laid ourselves down flat upon our backs and kept
our mouths wide open. The rain splashed into my face,
wetted my lips, and trickled down my throat. Never can
I describe the ecstasy with which I imbibed that renovat-
ing moisture. The parched and swollen glands relaxed,
I breathed afresh, and my whole being seemed revived with
a strange and requickened life.

The rain lasted about twenty minutes, when the cloud,
only half exhausted, passed quite away from over us.

We grasped each other's hands as we rose from the plat-
form on which we had been lying, and mutual congratula-
tions, mingled with gratitude, poured forth from our long
silent lips. Hope, however evanescent it might be, for the
moment had returned, and we yielded to the expectation
that, ere long, other and more abundant clouds might come
and replenish our store.

The next consideration was how to preserve and econo-
mize what little had been collected by the barrel, or imbibed
by the outspread sails. It was found that only a few pints
of rain-water had fallen into the barrel; to this small
quantity the sailors were about to add what they could by
wringing out the saturated sails, when Curtis made them
desist from their intention.

"Stop, stop!" he said "we must wait a moment; we
must see whether this water from the sails is drinkable."

I looked at him in amazement. Why should not this be
as drinkable as the other? He squeezed a few drops out
of one of the folds of a sail into a tin pot, and put it to his
lips. To my surprise, he rejected it immediately, and upon
tasting it for myself I found it not merely brackish, but
briny as the sea itself. The fact was that the canvas had
been so long exposed to the action of the waves, that it had
become thoroughly impregnated by salt, which of course
was taken up again by the water that fell upon it. Dis-
appointed we were; but with several pints of water in our
possession, we were not only contented for the present, but
sanguine in our prospect for the future.


CHAPTER XLVI
MY FAST IS BROKEN

JANUARY 17. -- As a natural consequence of the allevia-
tion of our thirst, the pangs of hunger returned more vio-
lently than ever. Although we had no bait, and even if we
had we could not use it for want of a whirl, we could not
help asking whether no possible means could be devised for
securing one out of the many sharks that were still per-
petually swarming about the raft. Armed with knives, like
the Indians in the pearl fisheries, was it not practicable to
attack the monsters in their own element? Curtis ex-
pressed his willingness personally to make the attempt, but
so numerous were the sharks that we would not for one
moment hear of his risking his life in a venture of which
the danger was as great as the success was doubtful.

By plunging into the sea, or by gnawing at a piece of
metal, we could always, or at least often, do something that
cheated us into believing that we were mitigating the pains
of thirst; but with hunger it was different. The prospect,
too, of rain seemed hopeful, while for getting food there
appeared no chance; and, as we knew that nothing could
compensate for the lack of nutritive matter, we were soon
all cast down again. Shocking to confess, it would be
untrue to deny that we surveyed each other with the eye
of an eager longing; and I need hardly explain to what a
degree of savageness the one idea that haunted us had re-
duced our feelings.

Ever since the storm-cloud brought us the too transient
shower the sky has been tolerably clear, and although at
that time the wind had slightly freshened, it has since
dropped, and the sail hangs idly against our mast. Except
for the trifling relief it brings by modifying the tempera-
ture, we care little now for any breeze. Ignorant as we
are as to what quarter of the Atlantic we have been carried
by the currents, it matters very little to us from what direc-
tion the wind may blow if only it would bring, in rain or
dew, the moisture of which we are so dreadfully in need.

My brain is haunted by most horrible nightmares; not
that I suppose I am in anyway more distressed than my
companions, who are lying in their usual places, vainly
endeavoring to forget their sufferings in sleep.

After a time I fell into a restless, dreamy doze. I was
neither asleep nor awake. How long I remained in that
state of stupor I could hardly say, but at length a strange
sensation brought me to myself. Was I dreaming, or was
there not really some unaccustomed odor floating in the
air? My nostrils became distended, and I could scarcely
suppress a cry of astonishment; but some instinct kept me
quiet, and I laid myself down again with the puzzled sen-
sation sometimes experienced when we have forgotten a
word or name. Only a few minutes, however, had elapsed
before another still more savory puff induced me to take
several long inhalations. Suddenly, the truth seemed to
flash across my mind. "Surely," I muttered to myself,
"this must be cooked meat that I can smell."

Again and again I sniffed, and became more convinced
than ever that my senses were not deceiving me. But from
what part of the raft could the smell proceed? I rose to
my knees, and having satisfied myself that the odor came
from the front, I crept stealthily as a cat under the sails
and between the spars in that direction. Following the
promptings of my scent, rather than my vision, like a blood-
hound in track of his prey. I searched everywhere I could,
now finding, now losing, the smell according to my change
of position, or the dropping of the wind. At length I got
the true scent, once for all, so that I could go straight to
the object for which I was in search.

Approaching the starboard angle of the raft, I came
to the conclusion that the smell that had thus keenly ex-
cited my cravings was the smell of smoked bacon; the mem-
branes of my tongue almost bristled with the intenseness of
my longing.

Crawling along a little farther, under a thick roll of
sail-cloth, I was not long in securing my prize. Forcing
my arm below the roll, I felt my hand in contact with some-
thing wrapped up in paper. I clutched it up, and carried
it off to a place where I could examine it by the help of
the light of the moon that had now made its appearance
above the horizon. I almost shrieked for joy. It was a
piece of bacon. True, it did not weigh many ounces, but
small as it was it would suffice to alleviate the pangs of
hunger for one day at least. I was just on the point of
raising it to my mouth, when a hand was laid upon my
arm. It was only by a most determined effort that I kept
myself from screaming out. One instant more, and I
found myself face to face with Hobart.

In a moment I understood all. Plainly this rascal Ho-
bart had saved some provisions from the wreck, upon which
he had been subsisting ever since. The steward had pro-
vided for himself, while all around him were dying of
starvation. Detestable wretch! This accounts for the
inconsistency of his well-to-do looks and his pitiable groans.
Vile hypocrite!

Yet why, it struck me, should I complain? Was not I
reaping the benefit of that secret store that he, for himself,
had saved?

But Hobart had no idea of allowing me the peaceable
possession of what he held to be his own. He made a dash
at the fragment of bacon, and seemed determined to wrest
it from my grasp. We struggled with each other, but
although our wrestling was very violent, it was very noise-
less.

We were both of us aware that it was absolutely neces-
sary that not one of those on board should know anything
at all about the prize for which we were contending. Nor
was my own determination lessened by hearing him groan
out that it was his last, his only morsel. "His!" I
thought; "it shall be mine now!"

And still careful that no noise of commotion should arise,
I threw him on his back, and grasping his throat so that
he gurgled again, I held him down until, in rapid mouth-
fuls, I had swallowed the last scrap of the food for which
we had fought so hard.

I released my prisoner, and quietly crept back to my own
quarters.

And not a soul is aware that I have broken my fast!


CHAPTER XLVII
HOBART HANGS HIMSELF

JANUARY 18. -- After this excitement I awaited the ap-
proach of day with a strange anxiety. My conscience told
me that Hobart had the right to denounce me in the pres-
ence of all my fellow-passengers; yet my alarm was vain.
The idea of my proceedings being exposed by him was
quite absurd; in a moment he would himself be murdered
without pity by the crew, if it should be revealed that, un-
known to them, he had been living on some private store
which, by clandestine cunning, he had reserved. But, in
spite of my anxiety, I had a longing for day to come.

The bit of food that I had thus stolen was very small;
but small as it was it had alleviated my hunger; and I was
now tortured with remorse, because I had not shared the
meager morsel with my fellow-sufferers. Miss Herbey,
Andre, his father, all had been forgotten, and from the bot-
tom of my heart I repented of my cruel selfishness.

Meantime the moon rose high in the heavens, and the
first streaks of dawn appeared. There is no twilight in
these low latitudes, and the full daylight came well nigh
at once. I had not closed my eyes since my encounter with
the steward, and ever since the first blush of day I had
labored under the impression that I could see some unusual
dark mass half way up the mast. But although it again
and again caught my eye, it hardly roused my curiosity,
and I did not rise from the bundle of sails on which I was
lying to ascertain what it really was. But no sooner did
the rays of the sun fall upon it than I saw at once that
it was the body of a man, attached to a rope, and swinging
to and fro with the motion of the raft.

A horrible presentiment carried me to the foot of the
mast, and, just as I had guessed, Hobart had hanged him-
self. I could not for a moment doubt that it was I myself
that had impelled him to the suicide. A cry of horror had
scarcely escaped my lips, when my fellow-passengers were
at my side, and the rope was cut. Then came the sailors.
And what was it that made the group gather so eagerly
around the body? Was it a humane desire to see whether
any sparks of life remained? No, indeed; the corpse was
cold, and the limbs were rigid; there was no chance that
animation should be restored. What then was it that kept
them lingering so close around? It was only too apparent
what they were about to do.

But I did not, could not, look. I refused to take part
in the horrible repast that was proposed. Neither would
Miss Herbey, Andre, nor his father, consent to alleviate
their pangs of hunger by such revolting means. I know
nothing for certain as to what Curtis did, and I did not
venture to inquire; but of the others, -- Falsten, Dowlas,
the boatswain, and all the rest, -- I know that, to assuage
their cravings, they consented to reduce themselves to the
level of beasts of prey; they were transformed from human
beings into ravenous brutes.

The four of us who sickened at the idea of partaking
of the horrid meal withdrew to the seclusion of our tent;
it was bad enough to hear, without witnessing the appalling
operation. But, in truth, I had the greatest difficulty in the
world in preventing Andre from rushing out upon the can-
nibals, and snatching the odious food from their clutches.
I represented to him the hopelessness of his attempt, and
tried to reconcile him by telling him that if they liked the
food they had a right to it. Hobart had not been mur-
dered; he had died by his own hand; and, after all, as the
boatswain had once remarked to me, "It was better to eat
a dead man than a live one."

Do what I would, however, I could not quiet Andre's
feeling of abhorrence; in his disgust and loathing he seemed
for the time to have quite forgotten his own sufferings.

Meanwhile, there was no concealing the truth that we
were ourselves dying of starvation, while our eight com-
panions would probably, by their loathsome diet, escape that
frightful destiny. Owing to his secret hoard of provisions
Hobart had been by far the strongest among us; he had been
supported, so that no organic disease had affected his tissues,
and really might be said to be in good health when his
chagrin drove him to his desperate suicide. But what was
I thinking of! whither were my meditations carrying me
away? was it not coming to pass that the cannibals were
rousing my envy instead of exciting my horror?

Very shortly after this I heard Dowlas talking about the
possibility of obtaining salt by evaporating seawater in the
sun; "and then," he added, "we can salt down the rest."

The boatswain assented to what the carpenter had said,
and probably the suggestion was adopted.

Silence, the most profound, now reigns upon the raft. I
presume that nearly all have gone to sleep. One thing I
do know, that they are no longer hungry.


CHAPTER XLVIII
HOBART'S BODY STOLEN

JANUARY 19. -- All through the day the sky remained un-
clouded and the heat intense; and night came on without
bringing much sensible moderation in the temperature. I
was unable to get any sleep, and, toward morning, was dis-
turbed by hearing an angry clamor going on outside the
tent; it aroused M. Letourneur, Andre, and Miss Herbey,
as much as myself, and we were anxious to ascertain the
cause of the tumult.

The boatswain, Dowlas, and all the sailors were storming
at each other in frightful rage; and Curtis, who had come
forward from the stern, was endeavoring to pacify them.

"But who has done it? we must know who has done it,"
said Dowlas, scowling with vindictive passion on the group
around him.

"There's a thief," howled out the boatswain, "and he
shall be found! Let's know who has taken it."

"I haven't taken it!" "Nor I! Nor I!" cried the
sailors one after another.

And then they set to work again to ransack every quarter
of the raft; they rolled every spar aside, they overturned
everything on board, and only grew more and more incensed
with anger as their search proved fruitless."

"Can YOU tell us," said the boatswain, coming up to me,
"who is the thief?"

"Thief!" I replied. "I don't know what you mean."

And while we were speaking the others all came up to-
gether, and told me that they had looked everywhere else,
and that they were going now to search the tent.

"Shame!" I said. "You ought to allow those whom
you know to be dying of hunger at least to die in peace.
There is not one of us who has left the tent all night. Why
suspect us?"

"Now just look here, Mr. Kazallon," said the boatswain,
in a voice which he was endeavoring to calm down into
moderation, "we are not accusing you of anything; we know
well enough you, and all the rest of you, had a right to
your shares as much as anybody; but that isn't it. It's all
gone somewhere, every bit."

"Yes," said Sandon gruffly; "it's all gone somewheres,
and we are going to search the tent."

Resistance was useless, and Miss Herbey, M. Letourneur,
and Andre were all turned out.

I confess I was very fearful. I had a strong suspicion
that for the sake of his son, for whom he was ready to ven-
ture anything, M. Letourneur had committed the theft; in
that case I knew that nothing would have prevented the in-
furiated men from tearing the devoted father to pieces. I
beckoned to Curtis for protection, and he came and stood
beside me. He said nothing, but waited with his hands in
his pockets, and I think I am not mistaken in my belief that
there was some sort of a weapon in each.

To my great relief the search was ineffectual. There
was no doubt that the carcass of the suicide had been thrown
overboard, and the rage of the disappointed cannibals knew
no bounds.

Yet who had ventured to do the deed? I looked at M.
Letourneur and Miss Herbey; but their countenances at once
betrayed their ignorance. Andre turned his face away, and
his eyes did not meet my own. Probably it is he; but, if it
be, I wonder whether he has reckoned up the consequences
of so rash an act.


CHAPTER XLIX
THE NEGRO BECOMES INSANE

JANUARY 20 to 22. -- For the day or two after the hor-
rible repast of the 18th those who had partaken of it ap-
peared to suffer comparatively little either from hunger or
thirst; but for the four of us who had tasted nothing, the
agony of suffering grew more and more intense. It was
enough to make us repine over the loss of the provision that
had so mysteriously gone; and if any one of us should die,
I doubt whether the survivors would a second time resist
the temptation to assuage their pangs by tasting human flesh.

Before long, all the cravings of hunger began to return to
the sailors, and I could see their eyes greedily glancing upon
us, starved as they knew us to be, as though they were reck-
oning our hours, and already were preparing to consume
us as their prey.

As is always the case with shipwrecked men, we were
tormented by thirst far more than by hunger; and if, in the
height of our sufferings, we had been offered our choice be-
tween a few drops of water and a few crumbs of biscuit, I
do not doubt that we should, without exception, have pre-
ferred to take the water.

And what a mockery to our condition did it seem that all
this while there was water, water, nothing but water, every-
where around us! Again and again, incapable of compre-
hending how powerless it was to relieve me, I put a few
drops within my lips, but only with the invariable result of
bringing on a most trying nausea, and rendering my thirst
more unendurable than before.

Forty-two days had passed since we quitted the sinking
Chancellor. There could be no hope now; all of us must die,
and by the most deplorable of deaths. I was quite con-
scious that a mist was gathering over my brain; I felt my
senses sinking into a condition of torpor; I made an effort,
but all in vain, to master the delirium that I was aware was
taking possession of my reason. It is out of my power to
decide for how long I lost my consciousness; but when I
came to myself I found that Miss Herbey had folded some
wet bandages around my forehead. I am somewhat better;
but I am weakened, mind and body, and I am conscious that
I have not long to live.

A frightful fatality occurred to-day. The scene was ter-
rible. Jynxstrop the negro went raving mad. Curtis and
several of the men tried their utmost to control him, but in
spite of everything he broke loose, and tore up and down
the raft, uttering fearful yells. He had gained possession of
a handspike, and rushed upon us all with the ferocity of an
infuriated tiger; how we contrived to escape mischief from
his attacks, I know not. All at once, by one of those un-
accountable impulses of madness, his rage turned against
himself. With his teeth and nails he gnawed and tore away
at his own flesh; dashing the blood into our faces, he
shrieked out with a demoniacal grin, "Drink, drink!" and
flinging us gory morsels, kept saying "Eat, eat!" In the
midst of his insane shrieks he made a sudden pause, then
dashing back again from the stern to the front, he made
a bound and disappeared beneath the waves.

Falsten, Dowlas, and the boatswain, made a rush that at
least they might secure the body; but it was too late; all
that they could see was a crimson circle in the water, and
some huge sharks disporting themselves around the spot.


CHAPTER L
ALL HOPE GONE

JANUARY 23. -- Only eleven of us now remain; and the
probability is very great that every day must now carry off
at least its one victim, and perhaps more. The end of the
tragedy is rapidly approaching, and save for the chance,
which is next to an impossibility, of our sighting land, or
being picked up by a passing vessel, ere another week has
elapsed not a single survivor of the Chancellor will remain.

The wind freshened considerably in the night, and it is
now blowing pretty briskly from the northeast. It has filled
our sail, and the white foam in our wake is an indication that
we are making some progress. The captain reckons that we
must be advancing at the rate of about three miles an hour.

Curtis and Falsten are certainly in the best condition
among us, and in spite of their extreme emaciation they bear
up wonderfully under the protracted hardships we have all
endured. Words cannot describe the melancholy state to
which poor Miss Herbey bodily is reduced; her whole being
seems absorbed into her soul, but that soul is brave and
resolute as ever, living in heaven rather than on earth. The
boatswain, strong, energetic man that he was, has shrunk
into a mere shadow of his former self, and I doubt whether
anyone would recognize him to be the same man. He keeps
perpetually to one corner of the raft, his head dropped upon
his chest, and his long, bony hands lying upon knees that
project sharply from his worn-out trowsers. Unlike Miss
Herbey, his spirit seems to have sunk into apathy, and it is
at times difficult to believe that he is living at all, so motion-
less and statue-like does he sit.

Silence continues to reign upon the raft. Not a sound,
not even a groan, escapes our lips. We do not exchange
ten words in the course of the day, and the few syllables
that our parched tongues and swollen lips can pronounce
are almost unintelligible. Wasted and bloodless, we are no
longer human beings; we are specters.


CHAPTER LI
FLAYPOLE BECOMES DELIRIOUS

JANUARY 24. -- 1 have inquired more than once of Curtis
if he has the faintest idea to what quarter of the Atlantic
we have drifted, and each time he has been unable to give
me a decided answer, though from his general observation
of the direction of the wind and currents he imagines that
we have been carried westward, that is to say, toward the
land.

To-day the breeze has dropped entirely, but the heavy
swell is still upon the sea, and is an unquestionable sign that
a tempest has been raging at no great distance. The raft
labors hard against the waves, and Curtis, Falsten, and the
boatswain, employ the little energy that remains to them in
strengthening the joints. Why do they give themselves
such trouble? Why not let the few frail planks part
asunder, and allow the ocean to terminate our miserable ex-
istence? Certain it seems that our sufferings must have
reached their utmost limit, and nothing could exceed the
torture that we are enduring. The sky pours down upon us
a heat like that of molten lead, and the sweat that saturates
the tattered clothes that hang about our bodies goes far to
aggravate the agonies of our thirst. No words of mine can
describe this dire distress; these sufferings are beyond human
estimate.

Even bathing, the only means of refreshment that we
possessed, has now become impossible, for ever since Jynx-
strop's death the sharks have hung about the raft in shoals.

To-day I tried to gain a few drops of fresh water by
evaporation, but even with the exercise of the greatest pa-
tience, it was with the utmost difficulty that I obtained
enough to moisten a little scrap of linen; and the only kettle
that we had was so old and battered, that it would not bear
the fire, so that I was obliged to give up the attempt in de-
spair.

Falsten is now almost exhausted, and if he survives us at
all, it can only be for a few days. Whenever I raised my
head I always failed to see him, but he was probably lying
sheltered somewhere beneath the sails. Curtis was the only
man who remained on his feet, but with indomitable pluck
he continued to stand on the front of the raft, waiting,
watching, hoping. To look at him, with his unflagging
energy, almost tempted me to imagine that he did well to
hope, but I dared not entertain one sanguine thought, and
there I lay, waiting, nay, longing for death.

How many hours passed away thus I cannot tell, but after
a time a loud peal of laughter burst upon my ear. Someone
else, then, was going mad, I thought; but the idea did not
rouse me in the least. The laughter was repeated with
greater vehemence, but I never raised my head. Presently
I caught a few incoherent words.

"Fields, fields, gardens and trees! Look, there's an inn
under the trees! Quick, quick! brandy, gin, water! a guinea
a drop! I'll pay for it! I've lots of money! lots! lots!"

Poor deluded wretch! I thought again; the wealth of
a nation could not buy a drop of water here. There was
silence for a minute, when all of a sudden I heard the shout
of "Land! land!"

The words acted upon me like an electric shock, and, with
a frantic effort, I started to my feet. No land, indeed, was
visible, but Flaypole, laughing, singing, and gesticulating,
was raging up and down the raft. Sight, taste, and hear-
ing -- all were gone; but the cerebral derangement supplied
their place, and in imagination the maniac was conversing
with absent friends, inviting them into the George Inn at
Cardiff, offering them gin, whiskey, and, above all, water!
Stumbling at every step, and singing in a cracked, discordant
voice, he staggered about among us like an intoxicated man.
With the loss of his senses all his sufferings had vanished,
and his thirst was appeased. It was hard not to wish to be
a partaker of his hallucination.

Dowlas, Falsten, and the boatswain, seemed to think that
the unfortunate wretch would, like Jynxstrop, put an end
to himself by leaping into the sea; but, determined this time
to preserve the body, that it might serve a better purpose
than merely feeding the sharks, they rose and followed the
madman everywhere he went, keeping a strict eye upon his
every movement.

But the matter did not end as they expected. As though
he were really intoxicated by the stimulants of which he had
been raving, Flaypole at last sank down in a heap in a cor-
ner of the raft, where he lay lost in a heavy slumber.


CHAPTER LII
I DECIDE TO COMMIT SUICIDE

JANUARY 25. -- Last night was very misty, and for some
unaccountable reason, one of the hottest that can be
imagined. The atmosphere was really so stifling, that it
seemed as if it only required a spark to set it alight. The
raft was not only quite stationary, but did not even rise
and fall with any motion of the waves.

During the night I tried to count how many there were
now on board, but I was utterly unable to collect my ideas
sufficiently to make the enumeration. Sometimes I counted
ten, sometimes twelve, and although I knew that eleven,
since Jynxstrop was dead, was the correct number, I could
never bring my reckoning right. Of one thing I felt quite
sure, and that was that the number would very soon be ten.
I was convinced that I could myself last but very little
longer. All the events and associations of my life passed
rapidly through my brain. My country, my friends, and
my family all appeared as it were in a vision, and seemed
as though they had come to bid me a last farewell.

Toward morning I woke from my sleep, if the languid
stupor into which I had fallen was worthy of that name.
One fixed idea had taken possession of my brain -- I would
put an end to myself; and I felt a sort of pleasure as I
gloated over the power that I had to terminate my suffer-
ings. I told Curtis, with the utmost composure, of my in-
tention, and he received the intelligence as calmly as it was
delivered.

"Of course you will do as you please," he said; "for
my own part, I shall not abandon my post. It is my duty to
remain here; and unless death comes to carry me away, I
shall stay where I am to the very last."

The dull gray fog still hung heavily over the ocean, but
the sun was evidently shining above the mist, and would, in
course of time, dispel the vapor. Toward seven o'clock I
fancied I heard the cries of birds above my head. The
sound was repeated three times, and as I went up to the cap-
tain to ask him about it, I heard him mutter to himself:

"Birds! Why, that looks as if land were not far off."

But although Curtis might still cling to the hope of reach-
ing land, I knew not what it was to have one sanguine
thought. For me there was neither continent nor island;
the world was one fluid sphere, uniform, monotonous, as in
the most primitive period of its formation. Nevertheless
it must be owned that it was with a certain amount of im-
patience that I awaited the rising of the mist, for I was
anxious to shake off the phantom fallacies that Curtis's
words had suggested to my mind.

Not till eleven o'clock did the fog begin to break, and as
it rolled in heavy folds along the surface of the water, I
could every now and then catch glimpses of a clear blue sky
beyond. Fierce sunbeams pierced the cloud-rifts, scorching
and burning our bodies like red-hot iron; but it was only
above our heads that there was any sunlight to condense the
vapor; the horizon was still quite invisible. There was no
wind, and for half an hour longer the fog hung heavily
round the raft, while Curtis, leaning against the side, strove
to penetrate the obscurity. At length the sun burst forth in
full power, and, sweeping the surface of the ocean, dispelled
the fog and left the horizon open to our eyes.

There, exactly as we had seen it for the last six weeks,
was the circle that bounded sea and sky -- unbroken, definite,
distinct as ever! Curtis gazed with intensest scrutiny, but
did not speak a word. I pitied him sincerely, for he alone
of us all felt that he had not the right to put an end to his
misery. For myself, I had fully determined that if I lived
till the following day, I would die by my own hand.
Whether my companions were still alive, I hardly cared to
know; it seemed as though days had passed since I had
seen them.

Night drew on, but I could not sleep for a moment. To-
ward two o'clock in the morning my thirst was so intense
that I was unable to suppress loud cries of agony. Was
there nothing that would serve to quench the fire that was
burning within me? What if, instead of drinking the blood
of others, I were to drink my own? It would be all un-
availing, I was well aware; but scarcely had the thought
crossed my mind, than I proceeded to put it into execution.
I unclasped my knife, and, stripping my arm, with a steady
thrust I opened a small vein. The blood oozed out slowly,
drop by drop, and as I eagerly swallowed the source of my
very life, I felt that for a moment my torments were re-
lieved. But only for a moment; all energy had failed my
pulses, and almost immediately the blood had ceased to flow.

How long it seemed before the morning dawned! and
when that morning came it brought another fog, heavy as
before, that again shut out the horizon. The fog was hot
as the burning steam that issues from a boiler. It was to
be my last day upon earth, and I felt that I should like to
press the hand of a friend before I died. Curtis was stand-
ing near, and crawling up to him, I took his hand in my
own. He seemed to know that I was taking my farewell,
and with one last lingering hope he endeavored to restrain
me. But all in vain; my mind was finally made up.

I should have liked to speak once again to M. Letourneur,
Andre, and Miss Herbey, but my courage failed me. I
knew that the young girl would read my resolution in my
eyes, and that she would speak to me of duty, and of God,
and of eternity, and I dared not meet her gaze; and I would
not run the risk of being persuaded to wait until a lingering
death should overtake me. I returned to the back of the
raft, and after making several efforts, I managed to get
on to my feet. I cast one long look at the pitiless ocean and
the unbroken horizon; if a sail or the outline of a coast had
broken on my view, I believe that I should only have deemed
myself the victim of an illusion; but nothing of the kind
appeared, and the sea was dreary as a desert.

It was ten o'clock in the morning. The pangs of hunger
and the torments of thirst were racking me with redoubled
vigor. All instinct of self-preservation had left me, and
I felt that the hour had come when I must cease to suffer.
Just as I was on the point of casting myself headlong into
the sea, a voice, which I recognized as Dowlas's, broke upon
my ear.

"Captain," he said, "we are going to draw lots."

Involuntarily I paused; I did not take my plunge, but
returned to my place upon the raft.


CHAPTER LIII
WE DECIDE TO DRAW LOTS

JANUARY 26. -- All heard and understood the proposition;
in fact it had been in contemplation for several days, but no
one had ventured to put the idea into words. However, it
was done now; lots were to be drawn, and to each would be
assigned his share of the body of the one ordained by fate to
be the victim. For my own part, I profess that I was quite
resigned for the lot to fall upon myself. I thought I heard
Andre Letourneur beg for an exception to be made in favor
of Miss Herbey; but the sailors raised a murmur of dissent.
As there were eleven of us on board, there were ten chances
to one in each one's favor -- a proportion which would be
diminished if Miss Herbey were excluded; so that the young
lady was forced to take her chance among the rest.

It was then half-past ten, and the boatswain, who had
been roused from his lethargy by what the carpenter had
said, insisted that the drawing should take place immediately.
There was no reason for delaying the fatal lottery. There
was not one of us that clung in the least to life; and we
knew that, at the worst, whoever should be doomed to die,
would only precede the rest by a few days, or even hours.
All that we desired was just once to slake our raging thirst
and moderate our gnawing hunger.

How all the names found their way to the bottom of a
hat I cannot tell. Very likely Falsten wrote them upon a
leaf torn from his memorandum-book. But be that as it
may, the eleven names were there, and it was unanimously
agreed that the last name drawn should be the victim.

But who would draw the names? There was hesitation
for a moment; then "I will," said a voice behind me. Turn-
ing round, I beheld M. Letourneur standing with out-
stretched hand, and with his long white hair falling over his
thin livid face that was almost sublime in its calmness. I
divined at once the reason of this voluntary offer; I knew
that it was the father's devotion in self-sacrifice that led him
to undertake the office.

"As soon as you please," said the boatswain.

M. Letourneur proceeded to draw out the folded strips of
paper, one by one, and, after reading out loud the name
upon it, handed it to its owner.

The first name called was that of Burke, who uttered a
cry of delight; then followed Flaypole and the boatswain.
What his name really was I never could exactly learn.
Then came Falsten, Curtis, Sandon. More than half had
now been called, and my name had not yet been drawn.
I calculated my remaining chance; it was still four to one
in my favor.

M. Letourneur continued his painful task. Since Burke's
first exclamation of joy not a sound had escaped our lips,
but all were listening in breathless silence. The seventh
name was Miss Herbey's, but the young girl heard it with-
out a start. Then came mine, yes, mine! and the ninth was
was that of Letourneur.

"Which one?" asked the boatswain.

"Andre," said M. Letourneur.

With one cry Andre fell back senseless. Only two names
now remained in the hat -- those of Dowlas and M. Letour-
neur himself.

"Go on!" almost roared the carpenter, surveying his
partner in peril as though he could devour him. M. Le-
tourneur almost had a smile upon his lips, as he drew forth
the last paper but one, and with a firm, unfaltering voice,
marvelous for his age, unfolded it slowly, and read the name
of Dowlas. The carpenter gave a yell of relief as he heard
the word.

M. Letourneur took the last bit of paper from the hat,
and, without looking at it, tore it to pieces. But, unper-
ceived by all but myself, one little fragment flew into a
corner of the raft. I crawled toward it and picked it up.
On one side of it was written Andr--; the rest of the word
was torn away. M. Letourneur saw what I had done, and,
rushing toward me, snatched the paper from my hands, and
flung it into the sea.


CHAPTER LIV
MISS HERBEY PLEADS FOR ONE DAY MORE

JANUARY 26. -- I understood it all; the devoted father hav-
ing nothing more to give, had given his life for his son.

M. Letourneur was no longer a human being in the eyes
of the famished creatures who were now yearning to see him
sacrificed to their cravings. At the very sight of the victim
thus provided, all the tortures of hunger returned with
redoubled violence. With lips distended, and teeth dis-
played, they waited like a herd of carnivora until they could
attack their prey with brutal voracity; it seemed almost
doubtful whether they would not fall upon him while still
alive. It seemed impossible that any appeal to their human-
ity could, at such a moment, have any weight; nevertheless,
the appeal was made, and, incredible as it may seem, pre-
vailed.

Just as the boatswain was about to act the part of butcher,
and Dowlas stood, hatchet in hand, ready to complete the
barbarous work, Miss Herbey advanced, or rather crawled,
toward them.

"My friends," she pleaded, "will you not wait just one
more day? If no land or ship is in sight to-morrow, then
I suppose our poor companion must become your victim.
But allow him one more day; in the name of mercy I en-
treat, I implore you."

My heart bounded as she made her pitiful appeal. It
seemed to me as though the noble girl had spoken with an
inspiration on her lips, and I fancied that, perhaps, in super-
natural vision she had viewed the coast or the ship of which
she spoke; and one more day was not much to us who had
already suffered so long, and endured so much.

Curtis and Falsten agreed with me, and we all united to
support Miss Herbey's merciful petition. The sailors did
not utter a murmur, and the boatswain in a smothered voice
said:

"Very well, we will wait till daybreak to-morrow," and
threw down his hatchet.

To-morrow, then, unless land or a sail appear, the horrible
sacrifice will be accomplished. Stifling their sufferings by
a strenuous effort, all returned to their places. The sailors
crouched beneath the sails, caring nothing about scanning
the ocean. Food was in store for them to-morrow, and that
was enough for them.

As soon as Andre Letourneur came to his senses, his first
thought was for his father, and I saw him count the pas-
sengers on the raft. He looked puzzled; when he lost con-
sciousness there had been only two names left in the hat,
those of his father and the carpenter; and yet M. Letourneur
and Dowlas were both there still. Miss Herbey went up
to him and told him quietly that the drawing of the lots
had not yet been finished. Andre asked no further ques-
tion, but took his father's hand. M. Letourneur's counte-
nance was calm and serene; he seemed to be conscious of
nothing except that the life of his son was spared, and as
the two sat conversing in an undertone at the back of the
raft, their whole existence seemed bound up in each other.

Meantime, I could not disabuse my mind of the impres-
sion caused by Miss Herbey's intervention. Something told
me that help was near at hand, and that we were approach-
ing the termination of our suspense and misery; the chimeras
that were floating through my brain resolved themselves into
realities, so that nothing appeared to me more certain than
that either land or sail, be they miles away, would be dis-
covered somewhere to leeward.

I imparted my convictions to M. Letourneur and his son.
Andre was as sanguine as myself; poor boy! he little thinks
what a loss there is in store for him to-morrow. His father
listened gravely to all we said, and whatever he might think
in his own mind, he did not give us any discouragement;
Heaven, he said, he was sure would still spare the survivors
of the Chancellor, and then he lavished on his son caresses
which he deemed to be his last.

Some time afterward, when I was alone with him, M.
Letourneur whispered in my ear:

"Mr. Kazallon, I commend my boy to your care, and
mark you, he must never know --"

His voice was choked with tears, and he could not finish
his sentence.

But I was full of hope, and, without a moment's inter-
mission, I kept my eyes fixed upon the unbroken horizon.
Curtis, Miss Herbey, Falsten, and even the boatswain, were
also eagerly scanning the broad expanse of the sea.

Night has come on; but I have still a profound conviction
that through the darkness some ship will approach, and that
at daybreak our raft will be observed.


CHAPTER LV
FRESH WATER

JANUARY 27. -- I did not close my eyes all night, and was
keenly alive to the faintest sounds, and every ripple of the
water, and every murmur of the waves, broke distinctly on
my ear. One thing I noticed and accepted as a happy omen;
not a single shark now lingered round the raft. The wan-
ing moon rose at a quarter to one, and through the feeble
glimmer which she cast across the ocean, many and many a
time I fancied I caught sight of the longed-for sail, lying
only a few cables'-lengths away.

But when morning came, the sun rose once again upon
a desert ocean, and my hopes began to fade. Neither ship
nor shore had appeared, and as the shocking hour of execu-
tion drew near, my dreams of deliverance melted away; I
shuddered in my very soul as I was brought face to face
with the stern reality. I dared not look upon the victim,
and whenever his eyes, so full of calmness and resignation,
met my own, I turned away my head. I felt choked
with horror, and my brain reeled as though I were intoxi-
cated.

It was now six o'clock, and all hope had vanished from
my breast; my heart beat rapidly, and a cold sweat of agony
broke out all over me. Curtis and the boatswain stood by
the mast attentively scanning the horizon. The boatswain's
countenance was terrible to look upon; one could see that
although he would not forestall the hour, he was determined
not to wait a moment after it arrived. As for the captain,
it was impossible to tell what really passed within his mind;
his face was livid, and his whole existence seemed concen-
trated in the exercise of his power of vision. The sailors
were crawling about the platform, with their eyes gleaming,
like the wild beasts ready to pounce upon their devoted prey.

I could no longer keep my place, and glided along to the
front of the raft. The boatswain was still standing intent
on his watch, but all of a sudden, in a voice that made me
start, he shouted:

"Now then, time's up!" and followed by Dowlas, Burke,
Flaypole, and Sandon, ran to the back of the raft.   As
Dowlas seized the hatchet convulsively, Miss Herbey could
not suppress a cry of terror. Andre started to his feet.

"What are you going to do to my father?" he asked in
accents choked with emotion.

"My boy," said M. Letourneur, "the lot has fallen upon
me, and I must die!"

"Never!" shrieked Andre, throwing his arms about his
father. "They shall kill me first. It was I who threw
Hobart's body into the sea, and it is I who ought to die!"
But the words of the unhappy youth had no other effect
than to increase the fury of the men who were so stanchly
bent upon their bloody purpose.

"Come, come, no more fuss," said Dowlas, as he tore
the young man away from his father's embrace.

Andre fell upon his back, in which position two of the
sailors held him down so tightly that he could not move,
while Burke and Sandon carried off their victim to the
front.

All this had taken place much more rapidly than I have
been able to describe it. I was transfixed with horror, and
much as I wished to throw myself between M. Letourneur
and his executioners, I seemed to be rooted to the spot where
I was standing.

Meantime the sailors had been taking off some of M.
Letourneur's clothes, and his neck and shoulders were al-
ready bare.

"Stop a moment!" he said in a tone in which was the
ring of indomitable courage. "Stop! I don't want to de-
prive you of your ration; but I suppose you will not require
to eat the whole of me to-day."

The sailors, taken back by his suggestion, stared at him
with amazement.

"There are ten of you," he went on. "My two arms
will give you each a meal; cut them off for to-day, and to-
morrow you shall have the rest of me."

"Agreed!" cried Dowlas; and as M. Letourneur held
out his bare arms, quick as lightning the carpenter raised
his hatchet.

Curtis and I could bear this scene no longer; while we
were alive to prevent it, this butchery should not be per-
mitted, and we rushed forward simultaneously to snatch
the victim from his murderers. A furious struggle ensued,
and in the midst of the melee, I was seized by one of the
sailors, and hurled violently into the sea.

Closing my lips, I tried to die of suffocation in the water;
but in spite of myself, my mouth opened, and a few drops
trickled down my throat.

Merciful Heaven! the water was fresh!


CHAPTER LVI
NEAR THE COAST OF SOUTH AMERICA

JANUARY 27 continued. -- A change came over me as if
by miracle. No longer had I any wish to die, and already
Curtis, who had heard my cries, was throwing me a rope.
I seized it eagerly, and was hauled up on to the raft.

"Fresh water!" were the first words I uttered.

"Fresh water?" cried Curtis; "why then, my friends,
we are not far from land!"

It was not too late: the blow had not been struck, and so
the victim had not yet fallen. Curtis and Andre (who had
regained his liberty) had fought with the cannibals, and it
was just as they were yielding to over-powering numbers
that my voice had made itself heard.

The struggle came to an end.   As soon as the words
"fresh water" had escaped my lips, I leaned over the side
of the raft and swallowed the life-giving liquid in greedy
draughts. Miss Herbey was the first to follow my example,
but soon Curtis, Falsten, and all the rest were on their knees
and drinking eagerly. The rough sailors seemed as if by
a magic touch transformed back from ravenous beasts to
human beings, and I saw several of them raise their hands
to heaven in silent gratitude. Andre and his father were
the last to drink.

"But where are we?" I asked at length.

"The land is there," said Curtis, pointing toward the
west.

We all stared at the captain as though he were mocking
us: no land was in sight, and the raft, just as ever, was the
center of a watery waste. Yet our senses had not deceived
us; the water we had been drinking was perfectly fresh.

"Yes," repeated the captain, "land is certainly there, not
more than twenty miles to leeward."

"What land?" inquired the boatswain.

"South America," answered Curtis, "and near the
Amazon; no other river has a current strong enough to
freshen the ocean twenty miles from shore!"


CHAPTER LVII
LAND AHOY!

JANUARY 27 continued. -- Curtis, no doubt, was right.
The discharge from the mouth of the Amazon is enor-
mously large, but we had probably drifted into the only spot
in the Atlantic where we could find fresh water so far from
land. Yet land undoubtedly was there, and the breeze was
carrying us onward slowly but surely to our deliverance.

Miss Herbey's voice was heard pouring out fervent praise
to Heaven, and we were all glad to unite our thanksgivings
with hers. Then the whole of us (with the exception of
Andre and his father, who remained by themselves to-
gether at the stern) clustered in a group, and kept our ex-
pectant gaze upon the horizon.

We had not long to wait. Before an hour had passed,
Curtis leaped in ecstasy and raised the joyous shout of
"Land ahoy!"

     .     .     .     .     .

My journal has come to a close.

I have only to relate, as briefly as possible, the circum-
stances that finally brought us to our destination.

A few hours after we first sighted land the raft was off
Cape Magoari, on the island of Marajo, and was observed
by some fishermen, who, with kind-hearted alacrity picked
us up and tended us most carefully. They conveyed us to
Para, where we became the objects of unbounded sympathy.

The raft was brought to land in latitude 0 deg. 12' north, so
that since we abandoned the Chancellor we had drifted at
least fifteen degrees to the southwest. Except for the in-
fluence of the Gulf Stream we must have been carried far,
far to the south, and in that case we should never have
reached the mouth of the Amazon, and must inevitably
have been lost.

Of the thirty-two souls -- nine passengers and twenty-
three seamen -- who left Charleston on board the ship, only
five passengers and six seamen remain. Eleven of us alone
survive.

An official account of our rescue was drawn up by the
Brazilian authorities. Those who signed were Miss Her-
bey, J. R. Kazallon, M. Letourneur, Andre Letourneur,
Mr. Falsten, the boatswain, Dowlas, Burke, Flaypole, San-
don, and last, though not least,
                     "Robert Curtis, Captain."

At Para we soon found facilities for continuing our
homeward route. A vessel took us to Cayenne, where we
secured a passage on board one of the steamers of the
French Transatlantic Aspinwall line, the Ville de St. Na-
zaire, which conveyed us to Europe.

After all the dangers and privations which we have under-
gone together, it is scarcely necessary to say that there has
arisen between the surviving passengers of the Chancellor
a bond of friendship too indissoluble, I believe, for either
time or circumstance to destroy; Curtis must ever remain
the honored and valued friend of those whose welfare he
consulted so faithfully in their misfortunes; his conduct
was beyond all praise.

When we were fairly on our homeward way, Miss Herbey
by chance intimated to us her intention of retiring from the
world and devoting the remainder of her life to the care
of the sick and suffering.

"Then why not come and look after my son?" said
M. Letourneur, adding, "he is an invalid, and he requires,
as he deserves, the best of nursing."

Miss Herbey, after some deliberation, consented to be-
come a member of their family, and finds in M. Letourneur
a father, and in Andre a brother. A brother, I say; but
may we not hope that she may be united by a dearer and a
closer tie, and that the noble-hearted girl may experience
the happiness that she so richly deserves?





End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Survivors of the Chancellor, by Verne