aid so, beginning at the
same time to dress. Before, however, he could finish putting on his
clothes the captain seized him by the arm and dragged him up. Scarcely,
however, had he reached the deck when the poor fellow fainted right
away. Tom, on seeing this, lifted him in his arms and carried him down
again.

"I warn you, Captain Hawkins, that you will cause the death of the lad
if you compel him to be on deck in this weather," said the doctor
firmly, as he turned to follow Tom and Esdale.

The captain, making no remark, walked aft, and did not again interfere.

Whether that sudden exposure to the cold had any serious effect I do not
know, but Esdale after this got worse and worse. Whenever I could I
went and sat by his side, when he used to talk to me of the happy land
for which he was bound. He did not seem even to wish to live, and yet
he was as cheerful as anyone on board. The doctor and first mate used
also to come and talk to him, and he spoke to them as he did to me, and
urged them to put their trust where he was putting his. I believe that
his exhortations had a beneficial influence on them, as they had on me.
When I said how I hoped that he would get better after we were round the
Cape, he answered--

"I shall never see the Horn, Peter; I am as sure of that as I can be of
anything."

Two days after this land was sighted on the starboard bow. It proved to
be Staten Island; but scarcely were we to the south of it when we
encountered a furious gale blowing from the westward.

For two days; by keeping close hauled, the captain endeavoured to gain
ground to the westward, resolved, as he declared, "to thrash the ship
round the Cape." On the third day, however, while I was on deck, a
tremendous sea came rolling up.

"Look out! Hold on for your lives, lads!" shouted the first mate.

Every one clung to whatever was nearest to him. One poor fellow was to
leeward. There was no avoiding the sea, which, like a mountain topped
with foam, struck the bows. The ship plunged into it, and for a few
seconds I thought would never rise again. On swept the roaring torrent,
deluging the deck; and had not the hatches been battened down, would
have half filled her.

A loud, crashing sound followed, and when the water had passed over us
nearly all the lee bulwarks were gone, and with them our shipmate who
had been standing a minute before as full of life as any of us. He was
not again seen, and must have gone d