bulwarks,
so that should a heavy sea get up, we might run less risk of being
washed overboard. We also went to the store-room, and brought to the
cabin various descriptions of provisions, that we might have them at
hand when wanted. We knew that when once we got a wind we should have
no time to do anything besides navigating the vessel.

I had gone below to get dinner ready, the only hot meal we took in the
day, leaving Jim pumping, when I heard him sing out down the
companion-hatchway--

"Here it comes, and a rattling breeze, too."

I sprang on deck and went to the helm, while Jim stood ready to trim
sails. Looking astern I could see a line of white foam sweeping along
towards us over the surface of the ocean. Before it was up to us the
sails bulged out, the brig gathered way, and presently she was gliding
at the rate of three or four knots through the water.

Jim and I shouted with exultation--we forgot the past--we thought not of
the future. We believed that we were about to reap the fruit of our
labours.

For several hours we ran on with the wind right aft, steering due west.
I steered for most of the time, but Jim occasionally relieved me. So
eager were we that we forgot all about eating, till he cried out--

"I must have some food, Peter, or I shall drop."

I was running below to get it, feeling just as hungry as he did, when
the wind hauled more to the southward. We took a pull at the starboard
braces, and I then hurried below to bring up what we wanted. Just as I
was cutting some meat which had been boiling till the fire went out, I
heard a crash. I sprang up on deck. The brig was again dismasted, and
Jim was struggling in the waves astern.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

DANGERS MULTIPLY.

For a moment I could not believe my senses. I fell like a person in a
dreadful dream. What, Jim gone! The brig again dismasted, and I left
alone on board her with the body of our dead captain! I was recalled to
myself by hearing a faint shout, and looking over the stern I saw my old
friend struggling amidst the waves some distance off.

My first impulse was to leap into the sea and swim to his rescue, but
then the thought happily came to me that if I did we should be unable to
regain the vessel; so, instead, crying out, "Keep up, Jim--keep up, I'll
help you!" I did what was far more likely to prove effectual--I unrove
the peak-halliards, cutting them clear with my knife, and fastened one
end to the wooden g