of
it, and felt sure that he was mistaken; at all events there was no land
visible ahead. We remained aloft till darkness came on, and there was
no use remaining longer.

We made our reports to the mate. He said that Jim was right, and that
we had probably passed the South Foreland.

This was, however, I suspected, only to encourage the men to keep at the
pumps. All night long, spell and spell, we laboured away. When the
morning broke no land was in sight. By this time we were all pretty
well knocked up, and most of the men declared that they could pump no
longer.

The mate now tried to make them keep on, reminding them that if they did
not they would lose their lives. Some answered that they would take
their chance, but Jim and I and others kept at our duty. Even we,
however, began to feel that the struggle would be useless unless we
should soon make the land, for the mate could not deny that the water
was gaining on us.

The wind, however, began to moderate, and the sun bursting forth from
between the clouds cheered us up a little.

At last the captain came on deck. After looking about him for some time
he told me to go below and get his quadrant. He was apparently sober,
and seemed to have forgotten what had happened.

"Have you a second one, sir?" I asked.

"No; bring the one I always use," he answered.

"You hove it at the mate yesterday, sir," I said. "And he fell and
broke his."

"What lies are you telling, youngster?" he exclaimed, uttering a fearful
oath. Then he shouted to the mate, who had gone forward to be out of
his way.

"Did I heave my quadrant at you?"

"Yes, you did," answered the mate. "You made me break mine, too, and if
we lose our lives you'll have them on your head."

The captain made no reply. I think that the occurrence must have
flashed on his mind. He looked at the compass, took two or three turns
on deck, and then ordered more sail to be set, directly afterwards
changing the ship's course to north-west. I therefore supposed that we
were steering for the Downs, or perhaps for Saint Helens. The men,
though very tired, went on pumping far more willingly than before.

A bright look-out was kept for land, but no land appeared. For some
hours the brig made fair progress, but as the evening drew on the wind
again got up. The captain had gone below. He could not resist taking a
pull at the rum bottle. We were carrying topsails and topgallantsails.

A sudden squ