id afterwards, and so did the others; and
although at ten o'clock we each avidly took our third of half a pint of
water, there were no further complaints of thirst. And here let me
mention, for the benefit of any reader who may be so unfortunate as to
find himself at any time in a similar predicament, that I then made the
important discovery that the most effectual method of assuaging thirst
with a very limited quantity of water is not to gulp it down and have
done with it, but to sip it slowly, about a teaspoonful at a time, and
retain each sip in the mouth at least half a minute before swallowing
it. The amount of comfort--not to say enjoyment--relief, and
refreshment thus obtainable is nothing short of marvellous.

But, despite every device that we could think of to obtain relief, our
sufferings during that day were terrible; for although, by assiduously
sousing each other with salt water at frequent intervals, we contrived
to avoid the worst torments of thirst, our faces, arms, and hands--in
fact all the exposed portions of our bodies, were so frightfully
scorched by the sun that even before knocking-off work to take our
midday meal we had begun to blister, and by nightfall our faces and arms
were covered with blisters. And all through that interminable day we
toiled on and on at the oars, with not a shred of cloud to be seen in
any direction, the blazing sun scorching us remorselessly, and the sea
all round us a polished, shining, gently undulating, colourless plain,
unbroken by so much as a solitary ripple, save those created by our oar
blades, the passage of the gig through the water, the occasional dash of
half a dozen flying-fish out of the sea under the boat's stem, and once
or twice the thin wake cut by the dorsal fin of a cruising shark.

But about three-quarters of an hour before sunset the carpenter, who was
then steering the boat, shouted: "Hurrah, my bullies, there's a change
of some sort comin' at last! See the edge of that there cloud liftin'
over the sea line ahead? That means wind, or I'll eat my hat; ay, and
p'rhaps rain too. What do you think, Mr Temple?"

With one accord we all cocked our oars, and, standing up, I took a good
long look ahead, secretly welcoming, I will confess, the excuse to cease
pulling for a minute or two; for my back was by this time aching
frightfully, and the skin of my thumbs, just where they joined the
hands, was so completely chafed away that the flesh was red, raw