ame to me
as I fixed the seat and prepared to put greater distance between the
_Labrador_ and myself. But one look round convinced me that the
position was hopeless. With the exception of the tarpaulins, the seats,
and the tiller, the boat was unfurnished. As I thought of these things,
and remembered that I was some hundreds of miles from land, that I had
a couple of biscuits for food, and a half a flask of brandy and water
for drink, I experienced a terror greater than any I have known; and so
weak was I with sickness and so low with the disappointment of it, that
I put my head between my hands and sobbed like a great child who had
known a childish sorrow. Only when the tears had dried upon my face,
and there was that after-sense of resignation which follows a nervous
outbreak, did I upbraid myself for a weakling, and set to think out
plans for my release. I had no compass, but, taking the north through
the "pointers," I tried to make out the course in which I was drifting;
yet this, I must confess, was a hopeless task. I thought that the boat
was being carried by a steady current; yet whether the current set
towards the land or away from it, I could not tell.

When a couple of hours had passed, and I could see the yacht no longer,
I took a new consolation in the thought that I must, after all, be in
the track of steamers bound out from, or to, New York; and in this hope
I covered myself in the tarpaulins and lay down again to shield myself
from the wind which blew with much sharpness as the night grew. I did
not sleep, but lay half-dazed for an hour or more, and was roused only
at a curious light which flashed above me in the sky. Its first aspect
led me to the conclusion that I saw a reflection of the Aurora; but the
second flash altered the opinion. The light was clearly focussed, being
a volume of intensely bright, white rays which passed right above me
with slow and guided motion, and then stopped altogether, almost fixed
upon the jolly-boat. I knew then what it was, and I sat up to see the
great beams of a man-of-war's search-light, showing an arc of the water
almost as clear as by the sun's power. The vessel itself I could not
make out; but I feared at once that fate had sent me straight to the
nameless ship; and that the very misfortune I had thought to have
undone was brought home to me. Yet I could not take one step to defend
myself, and must perforce drift on, to what end I knew not.

The light shone in all