as to cause me profound anxiety, which was in no
degree lessened by the loss of the four men who had gone overboard with
the wreck of the fore-topmast. Had the ship been sound this last
circumstance would have caused me no regret whatever, for the simple
reason that their loss reduced the number of my enemies by four; but
their loss, and the casualties due to the fracas in the forecastle,
resulted in the reduction of the number of the effective crew to six, of
whom the cook and the steward were two who could be relied upon for
little or nothing more than mere pulling and hauling, while, of the
remaining four, two were still suffering from wounds sufficiently severe
to partially disable them; and this reduction, with the brig practically
a wreck, was a serious one. Moreover, the glass remained very low, and
there was no indication whatever of the speedy abatement of the gale, or
even any ground for hope that we had seen the worst of it; on the
contrary, the sky looked wilder than ever, while the gusts of wind that
frequently swept down upon us were certainly growing more savage as the
minutes dragged their slow length away.

At length, after what seemed like an eternity of watching, the lagging
dawn came slowly oozing out of the scowling east, revealing a sky of
portentous gloom, of a deep, slatey-purple tint, blotched with shreds of
flying dirty-white vapour, and a sea that was positively appalling in
its height and steepness, and the fury with which it ran. Yet, heavy as
was the sea, and swiftly as the great liquid hills came swooping down
upon the battered brig, the little craft rode them fairly well, if a
trifle languidly--which latter characteristic I attributed to the
quantity of water still present in her hull; and after studying her
behaviour by daylight for a full half-hour, I came to the conclusion
that the sooner that water should be pumped out of her, the better. So,
watching my opportunity, I rushed for'ard along the unprotected deck--
over which the water washed heavily at times--and called all hands to
turn out and pump the ship dry; and after a great deal of grumbling, and
much show of disinclination, I at length succeeded in getting them on
deck, and persuading them to man the pumps. They pumped steadily until
it was time to knock off for breakfast, when we sounded the well, and
found a depth of twenty-one inches.

Breakfast, that morning, was rather a comfortless meal, for the cook,
terrified les