ain; but
presently, just to the southward of the sun's dazzle on the water, his
eye was caught by a momentary appearance of blinking light, as of the
sun's rays reflected from a cluster of floating wet objects. The next
instant he lost it again behind a heaving mound of swell; then he caught
it again and, this time, for long enough to enable him to decide that it
was about half a mile distant. For a moment he was doubtful whether,
being so far away, what he saw could possibly be wreckage from the
_Golden Fleece_; but a little reflection suggested to him that, if this
wreckage should happen to be floating deep, it would be quite possible
for him and his companion, with the hencoops--floating on the very
surface as they all were--to have been driven quite this distance to
leeward by the mere wash of the sea. Whether or no, however, it was
certain that away there, some half a mile to windward, there was enough
wreckage, apparently, to afford them a raft upon which they could be
supported high and dry.

There was but one way of reaching this wreckage, and that was to swim to
it, propelling the raft and its fair burden before him. This was a
decidedly formidable task to undertake; for the raft, being rectangular
in shape, and drawing about two feet of water, offered a very
considerable amount of resistance to propulsion, especially under the
unfavourable conditions which were the only ones possible; still there
was no other task upon which Leslie could employ himself--and he felt
that it was imperative to do _something_, if only to while the time away
and interest his companion, thus diverting her thoughts and preventing
her from dwelling too much upon the horrors of their present situation.
He therefore set manfully to work and, shaping a course by the run of
the sea, proceeded to propel the raft to windward, resting his hand upon
its after end and striking out with his legs, in long, steady strokes
that could be maintained for a considerable period without entailing
undue fatigue.

Their progress was painfully slow, almost imperceptible, indeed; for
when at the end of an hour's vigorous swimming Leslie paused to take
breath and a look round, the utmost that he could say was that they were
certainly not any further away from the wreckage for which he was aiming
than they had been to start with. And, reasoning upon this, the
conclusion forced upon him was that, after all, he had merely succeeded
in retarding their own