There, it's of no use to talk, Mike. We're in for
it, and I'm not going to give up like a coward. I don't know where we
are, and you don't; but we're in one of those whirls that go round and
round when the tide's running up or down, and we can't be any worse off
than we are now, for there are no rocks, seemingly."

"But the middle--the hole."

"They don't have any hole. Why, you know, old Joe sailed us right
across one out yonder by the Grosse Chaine, and we went into the little
one off Shag Rock. It's one like that we're in, and I daresay if it was
daylight we could see how to get out of it by a few tugs at the oars,
same as we got out of that one when we went round and round before. Oh,
we shall be all right."

Mike did not speak, for the words seemed to give him no comfort.

"Do you hear, Ladle?" continued Vince. "If we had been likely to upset,
it would have been all over with us long ago; but we go on sailing round
as steadily as can be, and I feel sure that we shall get out all right.
What do you say to lying down and having a nap?"

"Lie down? Here? Go to sleep?" cried Mike in horror. "I couldn't."

"I could," said Vince. "I'm so tired that I don't think I could keep
awake, even if I knew old Jarks was likely to come and threaten me with
a pistol. But, I say, Ladle, that wretch shot at us twice. Why, he
might have hit one of us. Won't he have to be punished when we get away
and tell all about him?"

"Yes, I suppose so--if ever we do get away," said Mike sadly.

Then they relapsed into silence, both watching the stars to convince
themselves that they were going round and round, making the circuit of
some wide place surrounded by the towering rocks, which made the sea
look so intensely black.

At last, thoroughly convinced, the strain of thinking became too great,
the motion of the boat and the constant gliding along in that horrible
monotonous whirl began to affect Mike as it had affected Vince, and, in
spite of his energetic struggles to rouse himself from it, was now
attacking him more strongly than ever. They were surrounded by dangers,
the least of which was that of the pursuing boat with the exasperated
captain; for so surely as the boat grazed upon a rock just below the
surface she would capsize. But all this was as nothing to the mentally
and bodily exhausted lads. Nature was all-powerful, and by degrees the
head of first one then of the other drooped, and sleep, deep and sudden,
f