said. "And if it was to
blow harder, as it seems likely to do, I don't know what will happen."

"Nor do I either, Peter, with such a drunken skipper as ours," he
answered. "What are the men about?"

"They have knocked off from the pumps, and if you don't come on deck and
order them to turn to again they'll let the brig go down without making
any further effort to save her," I answered.

My remarks had some effect, for though the mate had himself been
drinking, or he would not have spoken as he did to the captain, he yet
had some sense left in his head. He at last got up and came on deck.
All the hands, except the man at the helm, were crouching down under the
weather-bulwarks to avoid the showers of spray flying in dense masses
over us. The sea had increased, and though we had not much sail set,
the brig was heeling over to the furious blasts which every now and then
struck her; if she righted it was only to bend lower still before the
next.

"Do you want to lose your lives or keep them, lads?" shouted the mate,
after sounding the well. "Well then, I can tell you that if you don't
turn to at once and work hard, and very hard, too, the brig will be at
the bottom before the morning."

Still the men did not move. Jim was holding on near me.

"Come, let you and me try what we can do," I said; "we have pumped to
good purpose before now."

Jim needed no second asking. Seizing the brakes, we began, and pumped
away with all our might, making the water rush across the deck in a full
stream. Before long one man got up and joined, then another, and
another. When we got tired and cried, "Spell ho!" the rest took our
places.

"I see you want to save your lives, lads," cried the mate, who
occasionally took a spell himself. "But you must keep at it, or it will
be of no use."

All that day we stood on, the crew pumping without intermission.

"If the wind moderates we'll set more sail," said the mate; "but the
brig has as much on her as she can bear. We must be soon looking out
for land, though. You, Peter, have a sharp pair of eyes--go aloft, and
try if you can see it."

Though the vessel was heeling over terribly at the time, I was about to
obey, when Jim said, "No, you stay on deck; let me go, Peter."

To this I would not agree.

"Then I'll go with you," said Jim.

So we both crawled up the weather-rigging together. Jim said he thought
that he saw land on the starboard bow, but I did not get a glimpse