on my uncovered head and
through my hissing, seething brain. A plunge, and all my miseries would
be at an end. I would make that plunge; I would seek those cool,
cerulean depths; I would--Ah! I had forgotten you, you devils! What!
are you waiting for me? Are you growing impatient? How many of you are
there? One, two, three, four--stop, stop. I cannot count you if you
swarm around the boat in that unseemly fashion! Why, there are hundreds
of you, thousands, millions! The sea is black with you! Your waving
fins cover the ocean to the farthest confines of the horizon! And you
are all waiting for me! Very well, then, I shall disappoint you. I
shall--

When I recovered from my delirium it was night. The stars were shining
brightly, and the air was deliciously cool after the scorching heat of
the day. Strange to say, I no longer felt hungry. The craving for food
was gone, but its place was more than supplied by an increased agony of
thirst which seared my vitals as with fire. My lips were dry and
cracked; my tongue felt shrivelled and hard in my mouth. I tried to
speak to Dumaresq, who was lying in the bottom of the boat with his
glazed eyes turned up at the stars, but I could give utterance only to a
husky, hissing sound. There was no movement on the part of any of the
forms that were dimly discernable, huddled up in the bottom of the boat.
Whether they were dead or only asleep I knew not, nor cared. Life and
everything connected with it had lost all interest for me I was dying.
I knew it, and longed only for the end to come that I might be delivered
out of my misery. With inexpressible pain I raised myself to my knees
to take one more last look round, lest peradventure a sail should by
some miraculous interposition of Providence have drifted within our ken,
but there was nothing. There could be nothing while that murderous calm
lasted. I felt the old delirium returning upon me; it was rioting
within my brain. Strange forms and hideous shapes floated around me.
The dead steward climbed in over the gunwale and stood in the eyes of
the boat, denouncing us as murderers and calling curses down upon us.
Then the scene changed. A glorious light shone round about us; soft
strains of sweetest music came floating to us across the placid waters;
delicious perfumes filled the air. There was a gentle murmuring sound
as of a soft wind among trees and a gentle tinkling as of a running
stream. Then my brain seem