ght 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 hearing--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, whisky, and, above all water! Stumbling at
every step, and singing in a cracked, discordant voice, he staggered
about amongst 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 corner of the raft, where he lay lost in a
heavy slumber.

CHAPTER LII.

JANUARY 25th.--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 visi