During this time I watched and
steered the boat all through the night; Miss Onslow relieving me during
the hours of daylight, in order that I might secure a few hours of
much-needed rest. But I was far too anxious, as well as in too much
suffering, to sleep; the utmost that I could achieve was to doze
fitfully and for a few minutes at a time, during which my imagination
conjured up the most tormenting dreams, from which I usually awoke with
a violent start and a terrified cry. Then I would spring upon a thwart
and search the horizon eagerly and feverishly for the sight of a sail,
following this up with a renewed attempt to catch a fish or two. I
shall never forget the courage and fortitude exhibited by Miss Onslow
during this trying period; she never uttered a single word of complaint
or impatience, although it was impossible for her to conceal the fact
that she suffered acutely; and whenever she found me unusually silent
and, as she thought, giving way to dejection, she always had ready a
word or two of encouragement.

Thus matters wearily and painfully progressed with us until six days and
seven nights had dragged their slow length away, and a full week had
elapsed since the sinking of the _City of Cawnpore_. We were still
working our way to the southward, against an amount of wind and sea that
were quite as much as the boat could look at; and Miss Onslow was at my
feet, wrapped up in the sail, and moaning in her troubled sleep; the
hour being about one o'clock in the morning. I was of course _always_
on the lookout for a ship, night and day, but the time had now arrived
when I began to see craft that had no existence save in my disordered
imagination; I was therefore neither surprised nor elated when I
suddenly became aware of a vague, indefinite shadow of deeper darkness,
faintly and doubtfully showing against the horizon broad on my weather
bow; I simply regarded it as another phantom, and thought no more about
it. Yet I kept my gaze fixed upon it, nevertheless--since. I had
nothing better to occupy my attention; and presently a peculiarity of
this vision--not shared by the others I had seen--forced itself upon my
notice, inasmuch as that, while the other phantom ships that I had seen
had exhibited a propensity to rush over the surface of the ocean at
lightning speed, and to appear in half a dozen quarters or more in as
many seconds, this one obstinately persisted in maintaining the precise
position in which