ome time it came on to blow
harder than ever, but the brig was made snug in time, though the leaks
increased, and all hands in a watch were kept, spell and spell, at the
pumps. The captain behaved just as before, drinking all day long,
though he did not appear to lose his senses altogether. The mate,
however, looked very anxious as the vessel pitched into the seas each
time more violently than before. I asked him if he thought she would
keep afloat.

"That's more than I can promise you, my boy," he answered. "If the wind
falls, and the sea goes down, we may perhaps manage to keep the leaks
under; but if I were the captain I would run for Harwich or the Thames
sooner than attempt to thrash the vessel round the Foreland."

"Why don't you propose that to him, and if he does not agree, just steer
as you think best?" I said. "I suspect that he would not find out in
what direction we were standing."

"Wouldn't he, though! Why, Peter, I tell you he would swear there was a
mutiny, and knock me overboard," answered the poor mate in a tone of
alarm.

He was evidently completely cowed by the captain, and dared not oppose
him. The night was just coming on; the seas kept breaking over the
bows, washing the deck fore and aft, and the clank of the pumps was
heard without cessation. The captain sat in his cabin, either drinking
or sleeping, except when occasionally he clambered on deck, took a look
around while holding on to the companion-hatch, and then, apparently
thinking that all was going on well, went below again. When I could
pump no longer I turned in, thinking it very probable that I should
never see another sunrise. By continually pumping, the brig was kept
afloat during the night; but when I came on deck in the morning, the
mate, who looked as if he would drop from fatigue, told me that the
leaks were gaining on us. We were now far out, I knew, in the German
Ocean, and if the brig should go down, there was too much sea running to
give us a chance of saving ourselves.

Some time after daylight the captain came on deck, and he had not been
there long when there was a lull. "Hands about ship!" he shouted.

The watch below tumbled up, and the brig was got round.

"Will you take charge, sir?" humbly asked the mate. "I have been on
deck all night, and can scarcely stand."

The captain raved at him for a lazy hound. "I haven't turned in,
either," he said, though he had been asleep in his chair for several
h