the main hold, the men
having to be relieved in spells; but, after several hours' hard work,
the bows of the ship were sensibly lightened of the extra water ballast
we had carried here, and by the afternoon this part of the vessel was
also clear.

Meanwhile, however, Jake had announced that breakfast was ready and on
the cabin table. This was the first hot meal we had had the chance of
partaking of now for four days, and it may be imagined with what gusto
we all enjoyed it I should add that, Captain Miles, liking good living
himself, took care that the men all round had an equally good spread,
sharing his own private stores liberally, so that those in the
forecastle fared as sumptuously as we did.

The captain did this out of his own innate good nature; but, had he been
generous merely as an act of policy, it could not have served him in
better stead, the sailors working all the afternoon and far into the
night with all the greater willingness in setting the ship to rights as
a return for the kindness he had displayed. None wanted driving to make
them stick to their several tasks.

Mr Marline had believed that when the fore-peak was clear of water the
_Josephine_, which until then had her bows almost level with the sea,
would have recovered her proper floatation; but, although her head now
rose, she displayed a decided list to starboard that became the more
apparent as her head became elevated more and more.

"Some of the cargo must have shifted," said Captain Miles; and with him,
true sailor as he was, to discover a fault was to suggest a remedy.

"We must take off the battens of the main hatch," he cried. "Mr
Marline, stop rigging those sticks for a bit. It is far more important
for our stowage to be true before we take any more of the heavy spars on
board; for, if we meet with any bad weather, we may turn the turtle
again and not come out of it so cleverly as we managed on the first
occasion!"

"All right, sir," replied the mate, ordering the hands under his orders
on the forecastle to move aft, where, under the captain's directions,
the hatches were taken off and the cargo exposed to view.

A pair of shears were then rigged up over the hold, on which a running
tackle with blocks and falls was rigged; when, after several puncheons
of rum had been hoisted out, it was found that the lover tier of the
cargo had lurched over at the time the ship careened.

It took many hours to alter the arrangement of the