d him, and uttered a
groan of despair.

"Then it is _not_ true, after all," he gasped; and George noticed with
consternation the difficulty with which the poor fellow
articulated,--"it is _not_ true; it was only a dream."

"What was a dream, Tom?" asked George, and he started at the hollow
sepulchral tones of his own voice.

"I dreamt that a noble ship had hove in sight and was bearing down upon
us under stunsails. She was painted white from her truck down to her
water-line; her canvas was white as snow; she was flying a great white
flag from her main-royal-masthead, and the people on board her were all
dressed in white. It was a grand sight to see her sweeping down toward
us, with the cool clear water flashing up under her sharp bows, and
there was--ah! see, it was no dream, after all; hurrah! she comes--_she
comes_!"

And the poor fellow pointed away to where the rays of the sun fell upon
the water in a broad white dazzling glare.

"Merciful Heaven!" muttered George, "this is horrible; the lad is out of
his senses, gone mad with hunger and thirst. Sit down, Tom," said he
coaxingly, "sit down, there's a good fellow; I can see no ship. What
you see is only the glare of the sun on the water. But if we are only
patient, please God, a ship _will_ come and pick us up before long. But
we must be cool and steady, and keep a sharp lookout, so that when she
heaves in sight we may be ready to signal to her."

Tom passed his hand wearily over his forehead, shaded his eyes with his
hand, again peered long and anxiously over the gleaming sea, and shook
his head despondingly. The bright vision had vanished, and he sank
moodily down in the bottom of the boat, his arms resting upon the
thwart, and his head bowed upon them.

Oh! that terrible time of _waiting_; with the sun beating mercilessly
down upon their uncovered heads and scorching up their brains; with the
hellish tortures of hunger and thirst, already unendurable, momentarily
increasing in intensity; with a horrible feeling of deadly weakness fast
paralysing their energies and dragging like leaden weights upon their
aching limbs, what wonder that each moment lagged until it seemed an
hour, each minute a day, and that the hours stretched themselves out
into eternities of overwhelming anguish! At last George feebly felt,
with a curious mingling of despair and relief, that his own senses were
leaving him. Soon the boat was--to his disordered vision--no longer
dr