It soon became evident that we could not
by any possibility cut her off, but we might be seen by those on board.
At length she came almost ahead of us. Tim stood up and waved eagerly,
and we all shouted at the top of our voices. We also attempted to fire
our guns, but so wet were they that they would not go off.

"Oh, let us pray!" cried Marian; and she and I knelt down.

Still the schooner stood on. No eye on board was turned towards us. We
must have presented, indeed, but a small speck on the wide ocean. Tim
now waved violently, but all our shouting and waving was of no avail.
Uncle Paul then kept the boat away, to obtain another chance of being
seen; though, of course, there was no hope of overtaking the
fast-sailing schooner.

"God's will be done!" at length cried Uncle Paul. "We are only running
further and further out of our course. We must hope that another vessel
will come by, and that we may be seen by those on board. If not, while
the wind holds as it now does we must endeavour to reach the northern
part of Guiana."

Though Uncle Paul said this, I could not help reflecting that our
provisions would not hold out to keep us alive till then. For myself, I
felt more hungry than I had ever before done in my life, and dreadfully
thirsty; and I feared that Marian was suffering even more than I was,
though she did not complain. I was careful, however, to say nothing to
increase her alarm, though I mentioned my fears in a whisper to Arthur,
as we were seated in the bows of the boat.

"I do not despair altogether," he answered. "We may very likely, before
long, be visited by birds, which, as we have our guns, we may be able to
shoot; or, should a calm come on, possibly some flying-fish may leap on
board, or we may be able to catch some other fish. Perhaps we may even
be able to manufacture a hook and line."

"What a fortunate idea!" I exclaimed. "I have got a file in my knife;
and we may be able to find a nail, to which I can put a barb, and bend
it into the proper shape."

We lost no time in putting the idea just started, into execution. We
hunted about, and fortunately discovered a long thin nail of tough iron,
which I thought we could bend into the shape of a hook. I told no one
what I was about, however, but at once began filing away so as to form
the barb, the most difficult part of my task. Arthur, meantime,
recollected that he had on a pair of strong thread socks; so, undoing
the upper