upon the blindness of the crew, as the second of the two
ships vanished beyond the rim of the horizon; and she reminded me more
than once of words I had spoken to her earlier in the day, to the effect
that although we might miss half a dozen ships through their passing us
at too great a distance to allow of our being seen, the seventh would be
sure to come booming right down upon us, and our only difficulty would
be to avoid being run down by her. But later on, when the darkness had
once more closed down upon us, shutting out everything but the towering,
swooping, phosphorescent crests of the threatening seas, I caught her
softly, silently, and secretly crying; and the sight of her distress
aroused a sudden furious anger in me that caused me to again and still
more savagely execrate the blind lookout kept aboard the vessels that
had that day passed us. And then I began to wonder, bitterly, how many
poor souls--weak, helpless, delicate women and children, and
famine-stricken men--had perished miserably, after drifting about the
ocean for days that were veritable eternities of suffering, yet might
have been rescued had the officer of the watch aboard a passing ship but
bestowed a trifle more interest and attention upon the small, distant,
indistinctly-seen object that for an instant caught his gaze, and which
he all too hastily assumed to be the slanting pinion of some wandering
sea bird, or the leaping crest of a distant wave.

We rode thus all through the night, and well on toward noon the next
day, when the weather moderated sufficiently to permit me to make sail
once more. But as the day wore on the wind gradually hauled round until
it was dead on end for us; and nightfall found us heading to the
southward, with the wind out at about east-south-east.

This state of things prevailed for the next four days, during which no
further vessels were sighted, although it is possible that some may have
passed us during the night at such a distance as to be invisible in the
darkness. During this time we were put to great straits for want of
food, and suffered all the tortures of slow starvation; for the drowned
poultry soon putrefied and became so offensive that we had to heave them
overboard. I tried to supply the deficiency by fishing, but only
succeeded in capturing one small shark, about eighteen inches long,
which was fortunately hooked in the mouth in such a way that he could
not cut through the line with his teeth.