pleasant breeze. A
heavy sea, however, was still running,--as I could tell by the movements
of the felucca,--and I could hear the water well and gurgle up the side
of the little craft and go pouring across her deck from time to time,
although not so frequently as before I turned in.

I rolled reluctantly out of my bunk--for I seemed to be aching in every
joint of my body, and my head was burning and throbbing with a dull pain
like what would be occasioned by the strokes of a small hammer--and
waded, waist deep in water, to the companion ladder, up which I crawled,
and so out on deck.

The gale had blown itself out, the wind having subsided to a very gentle
breeze, that I soon discovered was fast dying away to a calm--although
what little wind there was still came breathing out from the westward.
The sky was perfectly clear, of a rich, deep, pure blue colour, without
a shred of cloud to be seen in the whole of the vast vault; and in the
midst of it, about two hours high, hung the morning sun, a dazzling
globe of brilliance and heat. The sea, I now found, had subsided almost
entirely, but a very heavy swell was still running, over which the
felucca rode laboriously, the water in her interior occasionally pinning
her down to such an extent that the quick-running swell would brim up
over her bows and pour in a perfect cataract athwart her deck. This,
however, I was not surprised at, for--as nearly as I could judge--the
felucca showed barely nine inches of freeboard! Still the little hooker
seemed surprisingly buoyant, considering her water-logged condition, and
now that the seas no longer broke over her, there seemed to be no reason
why, given enough time, I should not be able to pump her dry, and resume
my voyage to Barbadoes.

So I rigged the pump and went to work, hoping that, as the gale had now
abated and the sea had gone down, the straining of the hull and the
opening of the seams had ceased, and that consequently the felucca was
no longer in a leaky condition. I toiled on throughout the whole of
that roasting morning, with the sun beating mercilessly down upon me,
while the water swirled athwart the deck and about my legs, until noon,
and then, utterly exhausted with my labour, my skin burning with fever
and my hands raw and bleeding, I was fain to cry "spell ho!" and give up
for a time, while I sought somewhat to eat and drink. I had worked with
a good will, sanguinely hoping that when I felt myself compell