bale out the boat. No one thought of
singing after this, for directly we were free of one sea another broke
aboard us. It was a mercy that they didn't come together.

"We must pray to God, lads," cried Mr Griffiths. "He who rules the
seas and winds, if we ask Him, can save us if He thinks fit. Don't
cease baling. He likes people to work and pray, but not to fall down on
their knees while there's work to be done and leave it undone."

He and the doctor set the example by baling away as hard as any of us.
We had the boat's regular balers, our iron pot, and a couple of small
buckets; the rest of us used our hats and caps. Still, do all we could,
it was a difficult matter to keep the boat free from water. We were wet
through, as was everything in the boat, and we were afraid that our
provisions would be spoilt, except perhaps the onions and potatoes.

Hour after hour went slowly by, for we had no time for talking to make
it appear shorter. Still the night did come to an end at last, but
there were no signs of the gale abating. As soon as the sun rose we
looked out eagerly on all sides for land. Nothing broke the uniform
line of the horizon except the foam-topped seas, which rose up
tumultuously between us and it. We were driving all this time, it must
be remembered, to the southward at the rate, the mate said, of two knots
an hour, so that if we had been near Guam when the gale came on we were
being driven farther and farther from it, and it would be a hard matter
to regain the island.

We had taken nothing during the night, and we now all cried out for
food. The store of salt fish we had remaining was scarcely eatable, for
the salt had been washed out of it, and it was becoming bad. What we
had smoked was a little better, but that also was almost spoilt, yet
such as it was we were glad to have a portion with an onion apiece, and
a small mug half full of water. The mate would give us no more.

"What I do is for the good of all of us, lads," he said. "I can't tell
when we may make the land, or what provisions we may find when we get
there."

Horner sang out, "We had some biscuit. What has become of that? Why
don't you let us have a piece for our breakfasts?"

"Because the biscuits will keep longer than anything else, and are all
we may have to depend upon," answered the doctor, who had got them under
him in the stern-sheets, and had been trying from the first to keep them
as free from water as possibl