sea, which seemed mountainous, now that we
were down upon its surface, although from the deck of the ship it had
appeared nothing at all extraordinary. I had been swimming some five
minutes or so when, as we floated up on the breast of a wave, I saw in
the dim moonlight what looked like a quantity of loose, floating
wreckage at no very great distance away, but slightly to windward; and
toward this we made the best of our way, ultimately arriving in the
midst of a quantity of loose, jagged, and splintered planking tangled up
with a raffle of spars, sails, and rigging. It was rather dangerous
stuff to venture among, as some of the loose planks were lancing about
in the wash of the sea with considerable violence, and a blow from a
jagged end would have inflicted a more or less serious injury, even had
it not killed us outright; but at length I found a little clear space
among the wreckage, into which I towed my companion, and presently we
found ourselves close alongside one of the masts, with the after-rim of
the top riding dry; and on to this I at once climbed, hauling Miss
Onslow after me, and lashing her securely to the top by means of an end
of rope cut from among the raffle. Here we were reasonably safe and
comfortable, for we were upon a raft of buoyant material that would
probably float for months, while there was so much of it that it
effectually broke the sea and prevented it from washing over us. It was
a terrible situation for such a delicately-nurtured girl as she who had
so unexpectedly been thrown under my protecting care; but throughout the
night she never uttered a single word that could be construed into
complaint; nor did she evince the slightest fear; on the contrary, she
exhibited a calm and steadfast courage that filled me with admiration,
although the questions that she put to me from time to time rendered it
perfectly clear that she very fully realised the desperate nature of our
predicament.

Some time during the night--it would probably be about midnight--the
wind dropped to a light breeze, and the sea began to go down, until by
daylight there was only a very gentle air blowing, with very little sea,
but a long, heavy swell; the clouds all went drifting away out of sight,
leaving the sky clear; and there was, generally, a very promising
prospect that the coming day would be fine.

The moment that it was light enough to see, I scrambled up on the
wreckage and took a long look round, in the hop