to windward,
thanks to an exceptionally deep keel, and making about four knots of
headway every hour.

My hopes rose high that even yet, despite the delays which we had
already experienced, we might be able to cover the distance to the coast
before our provisions gave out; for if we were doing well under almost
the worst conditions that could possibly befall us, what might we not do
when those conditions improved? And they certainly did improve as the
afternoon wore on, for the wind eventually dropped sufficiently to
permit us to shake out our reefs and sail the boat under whole canvas,
while with the moderating of the wind the sea also went down and ceased
to break, although the swell still ran very high. But it was only the
heavily breaking seas that were really dangerous to us; and now that we
no longer had them to fear we drove the gig for all that she was worth,
luffing her through the fresher puffs, hawsing her up to windward fathom
by fathom, and generally handling her as though we were sailing her in a
race, as indeed we were in a sense--a race against time.

We continued to do exceedingly well all through that afternoon, and
indeed up to about midnight; but the wind was softening all the time,
and shortly after midnight our speed began to slacken, until by daylight
of the next morning it had once more fallen to less than three knots.
Moreover, the weather was by no means satisfactory in appearance; there
were no actual clouds to be seen in the sky, but instead of being a
clear, deep, rich blue, as it ought to have been, and as it no doubt
would have been had there been fine weather in prospect, the entire
vault of heaven was veiled in a thick, steamy, colourless haze, through
which the sun showed as a feeble, shapeless blotch of white. There was
barely enough wind, still dead against us, to fan us along at a bare two
knots; but I did not like the look of the sea, which, despite the almost
total absence of wind, was in a strange state of unrest, the long heave
of the swell being overrun by small, short, choppy miniature seas, which
seemed to leap up at brief intervals without visible cause, and then
curled over and fell in a casual, sloppy manner that suggested the idea
that they would have liked to break but could not summon up the energy
to do so.

But whatever else they may have failed to do, these sloppy seas managed
to retard the way of the boat through the water very considerably, and
to fill our so