although I am bound to
admit that, with the height of sea and the strength of wind that still
prevailed, there were moments when the task of sailing the boat became
exciting enough to satisfy the cravings of even the most exacting
individual. Lindsay and I relieved each other at the tiller, watch and
watch, with one hand forward to keep a lookout ahead and to leeward, the
rest of the poor fellows being so thoroughly worn out by their long
spell at the pumps that rest and sleep was an even more imperative
necessity for them than it was for us.

By the time of sunrise the wind had dwindled away to a topgallant
breeze, with a corresponding reduction in the amount of sea; we were
therefore enabled to shake out the double reef that we had thus far been
compelled to carry in our canvas, while the aspect of the sky was more
promising than it had been for several days past. The weather was now
as favourable as we could possibly wish, the wind being just fresh
enough to send us along at top speed, gunwale-to, under whole canvas,
while the sea was going down rapidly. But, as the day wore on, the
improvement in the weather progressed just a little too far; it became
even finer than we wished it, the wind continuing to drop steadily,
until by noon we were sliding over the long, mountainous swell at a
speed of barely four knots, with the hot sun beating down upon us far
too ardently to be pleasant. Needless to say, we kept a sharp lookout
for a sail all through the day, but saw nothing; the flying-fish that
sparkled out from the ridges of the swell and went skimming away to port
and starboard, gleaming as brilliantly in the strong sunlight as a
handful of new silver dollars, being the only objects to break the
solitude that environed us. By sunset that day the wind had died
completely out, leaving the ocean a vast surface of slow-moving, glassy
undulations, and I was reluctantly compelled to order the canvas to be
taken in, the masts to be struck, and the oars to be thrown out. Then,
indeed, as the night closed down upon us and the stars came winking, one
by one, out of the immeasurable expanse of darkening blue above us, the
silence of the vast ocean solitude that hemmed us in became a thing that
might be felt. So oppressive was it that, as by instinct, our
conversation gradually dwindled to the desultory exchange of a few
whispered remarks, uttered at lengthening intervals, until it died out
altogether; while the profound