even more distinctly than the captain himself,
and feared that the brig would break up while they lay alongside of
her, and crush them amid the ruins. Then the spray of the seas that
broke over the weather side of the brig, fell like rain upon them; and
every body in the boat was already as wet as if exposed to a violent
shower. It was well, therefore, for Spike that he descended into the
boat as he did, for another minute's delay might have brought about
his own destruction.

Spike felt a chill at his heart when he looked about him and saw the
condition of the yawl. So crowded were the stern-sheets into which he
had descended, that it was with difficulty he found room to place his
feet; it being his intention to steer, Jack was ordered to get into
the eyes of the boat, in order to give him a seat. The thwarts were
crowded, and three or four of the people had placed themselves in the
very bottom of the little craft, in order to be as much as possible
out of the way, as well as in readiness to bail out water. So
seriously, indeed, were all the seamen impressed with the gravity of
this last duty, that nearly every man had taken with him some vessel
fit for such a purpose. Rowing was entirely out of the question, there
being no space for the movement of the arms. The yawl was too low in
the water, moreover, for such an operation in so heavy a sea. In all,
eighteen persons were squeezed into a little craft that would have
been sufficiently loaded, for moderate weather at sea, with its four
oarsmen and as many sitters in the stern-sheets, with, perhaps, one in
the eyes to bring her more on an even keel. In other words, she had
just twice the weight in her, in living freight, that it would have
been thought prudent to receive in so small a craft, in an ordinary
time, in or out of a port. In addition to the human beings enumerated,
there was a good deal of baggage, nearly every individual having had
the forethought to provide a few clothes for a change. The food and
water did not amount to much, no more having been provided than enough
for the purposes of the captain, together with the four men with whom
it had been his intention to abandon the brig. The effect of all this
cargo was to bring the yawl quite low in the water; and every
seafaring man in her had the greatest apprehensions about her being
able to float at all when she got out from under the lee of the Swash,
or into the troubled water. Try it she must, however, an