edition, whose failure has just been narrated, was planned, my
anxieties and energies had been so powerfully aroused that I went through
the protracted scenes of that terrible night without a feeling of the
slightest fatigue. My mind and body were alike active and full of
energy. No sooner was the last thrilling fear of danger past, however,
than my faculties were utterly relaxed; and, when I felt the cool breezes
of the Pacific playing around my fevered brow, and heard the free waves
rippling at the schooner's prow, as we left the hated island behind us,
my senses forsook me and I fell in a swoon upon the deck.

From this state I was quickly aroused by Bill, who shook me by the arm,
saying,--

"Hallo! Ralph, boy, rouse up, lad, we're safe now. Poor thing, I believe
he's fainted." And raising me in his arms he laid me on the folds of the
gaff-top-sail, which lay upon the deck near the tiller. "Here, take a
drop o' this, it'll do you good, my boy," he added, in a voice of
tenderness which I had never heard him use before, while he held a brandy-
flask to my lips.

I raised my eyes gratefully, as I swallowed a mouthful; next moment my
head sank heavily upon my arm and I fell fast asleep. I slept long, for
when I awoke the sun was a good way above the horizon. I did not move on
first opening my eyes, as I felt a delightful sensation of rest pervading
me, and my eyes were riveted on and charmed with the gorgeous splendour
of the mighty ocean, that burst upon my sight. It was a dead calm; the
sea seemed a sheet of undulating crystal, tipped and streaked with the
saffron hues of sunrise, which had not yet merged into the glowing heat
of noon; and there was a deep calm in the blue dome above, that was not
broken even by the usual flutter of the sea-fowl. How long I would have
lain in contemplation of this peaceful scene I know not, but my mind was
recalled suddenly and painfully to the past and the present by the sight
of Bill, who was seated on the deck at my feet with his head reclining,
as if in sleep, on his right arm, which rested on the tiller. As he
seemed to rest peacefully I did not mean to disturb him, but the slight
noise I made in raising myself on my elbow caused him to start and look
round.

"Well, Ralph, awake at last, my boy; you have slept long and soundly," he
said, turning towards me.

On beholding his countenance I sprang up in anxiety. He was deadly pale,
and his hair, which hung in disheve