do, and, swimming first to the piece of plank,
secured possession of it, and then, pushing it before me, headed for the
hatch, which I soon reached.

To climb up on the hatch was a very much more difficult feat than I had
imagined it would be, for my first efforts merely resulted in causing it
to turn over; but at length, having considered the matter a little, I
managed partly to guide it under me, and partly to climb up on it, until
I had it fairly under me, when, to my great delight, I found that it was
just buoyant enough to support my weight, and that by carefully seating
myself cross-legged, tailor fashion, in the exact centre of it, I could
keep it right side up. I next experimented with my makeshift paddle,
and although the hatch proved so terribly crank that I was several times
in imminent danger of capsizing by the mere sway of my body from side to
side, I presently acquired the trick of keeping my balance, and found,
to my great delight, that I could actually progress, although only
slowly and at the cost of great exertion.

Strangely enough, I had not thus far suffered very greatly from thirst,
although something like eighteen hours had elapsed since the last
draught had passed my lips; but my sense of hunger was by this time
painfully acute. I had no means, however, of satisfying my gnawing
craving for food, and I, therefore, addressed myself to the task of
paddling my tiny raft shoreward, fully convinced that the only hope of
saving my life lay in reaching the land before the scanty remains of my
strength became exhausted.

I estimated, from the height of the sun above the horizon, that it was
about nine o'clock in the morning when I fairly started upon my
shoreward voyage, and the exasperating slowness with which I drew away
from the rest of the wreckage caused me to put my speed through the
water at not more than a mile an hour at the utmost, while the grey
misty appearance of the land for which I was making convinced me that it
must be at least twenty miles distant; I had, therefore, something like
another twenty-four hours of continuous laborious paddling before me
before I might once more hope to feel the solid earth beneath my feet,
and find something--were it no more than a little wild fruit--wherewith
to stay my hunger. But this was not all: the skin of my hands had
become so exceedingly soft and tender through long immersion in the
water that the sharp edges of the board which I was using as a