tired out already,
and my useless right arm ached with the hard usage it had lately
received. In the next few minutes, while my chin sank lower and lower
in the water, I thought of about every incident of my life; but just as
the first mouthful went down my throat my right foot hit something, and
the next moment I was standing on it--a hard, firm substance which
could be nothing but the rock.

"At first I found difficulty in holding my footing until I realized
that I must breast a current of about half a knot; but when I had
mastered the knack I found no trouble. Feeling carefully with my feet,
I explored the ground under foot, and following a rise to where it
ended found myself waist high out of water. This was better than
nothing, and I resumed my shouts to the men in the boats. At times they
answered; but very faintly, and after a while they grew silent. And
then, from somewhere out of the fog came the faint stroke of a small
bell. I shouted again; but was not answered.

"There was very little wind, and but a perceptible heave of the ground
swell; so I was bothered at first only by the dense fog and the
current. But after a time I had other troubles, of a mental nature. The
water was unquestionably rising, and whether or not it would rise above
my chin was an unsolvable problem. I did not know the time of low tide
in that part of the world on that night. Then, too, that bell sounded
again. And again and again I shouted into the silence. It struck twice
this time; but it was not until another half-hour had gone by, and it
struck three times with an interval between the second and third
strokes, that I realized that somewhere at hand was a ship's bell
clock. I yelled for help, calling 'Ship ahoy! Give me a hand here! I'm
standing on bottom--on a reef! Lower a boat!'

"Nothing answered me, and I suppose I went more or less crazy as the
night went on and that infernal ghostly bell struck off the half-hours.
It seemed to have the correct time; but it was hard to realize that a
ship had gone through a successful mutiny and shipwreck in the
half-hour between eight bells and one bell.

"But it ended at last, when, from the cold and the wet and the strain
on my voice, I found myself unable to call out any more. And it struck
me as rather hard, too; for at daylight the fog lifted a bit, and
there, about a mile and a half to the nor'ard, showed the lug sail of
one of the boats. The current must have drifted it to the north