of this fact.
A natural shame and regret for his weakness and indecision prevented
Augustus from confiding to me at once what a more intimate and
unreserved communion afterward induced him to reveal. Upon finding his
further progress in the hold impeded by obstacles which he could not
overcome, he had resolved to abandon his attempt at reaching me, and
return at once to the forecastle. Before condemning him entirely on this
head, the harassing circumstances which embarrassed him should be taken
into consideration. The night was fast wearing away, and his absence
from the forecastle might be discovered; and indeed would necessarily be
so, if he should fail to get back to the berth by daybreak. His candle
was expiring in the socket, and there would be the greatest difficulty
in retracing his way to the hatchway in the dark. It must be allowed,
too, that he had every good reason to believe me dead; in which event
no benefit could result to me from his reaching the box, and a world of
danger would be encountered to no purpose by himself. He had repeatedly
called, and I had made him no answer. I had been now eleven days and
nights with no more water than that contained in the jug which he had
left with me--a supply which it was not at all probable I had boarded in
the beginning of my confinement, as I had every cause to expect a speedy
release. The atmosphere of the hold, too, must have appeared to him,
coming from the comparatively open air of the steerage, of a nature
absolutely poisonous, and by far more intolerable than it had seemed to
me upon my first taking up my quarters in the box--the hatchways at that
time having been constantly open for many months previous. Add to these
considerations that of the scene of bloodshed and terror so lately
witnessed by my friend; his confinement, privations, and narrow escapes
from death, together with the frail and equivocal tenure by which he
still existed--circumstances all so well calculated to prostrate every
energy of mind--and the reader will be easily brought, as I have been,
to regard his apparent falling off in friendship and in faith with
sentiments rather of sorrow than of anger.

The crash of the bottle was distinctly heard, yet Augustus was not sure
that it proceeded from the hold. The doubt, however, was sufficient
inducement to persevere. He clambered up nearly to the orlop deck by
means of the stowage, and then, watching for a lull in the pitchings of
the vessel, h