overhung us. And then we almost wished
that it had remained night, so dreary and awe-inspiring was the scene
that met our aching gaze. The heavens gave no sign of relenting, the
sky looked wild as ever,--although the awful ruddy glow had long since
faded out from the clouds,--while the ocean seemed to be lashed and
goaded by the furious wind into an endless succession of rushing
mountain waves, every one of which, as it swept with hissing, foam-white
crest down upon us, seemed mercilessly bent upon our destruction. As I
stood up and gazed about me,--for I could do so now, by leaning well
forward against the wind,--it seemed a marvellous thing to me that the
gig continued to live through it; for, light and buoyant though she was,
every sea she met swept her from stem to stern; and it was plain enough
to us all now that it was nothing but the canvas covering that saved
her. As it was, we shipped so much water that it was as much as three
of us could do--that being all who could work in the opening at one
time--to keep her from filling. To add still further to our misery, we
were one and all by this time dead tired, worn out, in fact, with the
terror and anxiety of the past night; yet we dared not yet attempt to
seek the comfort and refreshment of sleep, for our critical situation
continued to demand our utmost watchfulness and our unremitting
exertions; and when at length we sought to renew our strength by means
of a meal, the grievous discovery was made that the whole of our small
stock of ship's bread was spoiled and rendered uneatable by the salt
water. And, as though this misfortune was not in itself sufficiently
serious, when we sought to quench our thirst we discovered that the bung
of the water-breaker had somehow got out of the bung-hole, allowing so
much salt water to mingle with our small stock of fresh that the latter
had been rendered almost undrinkable.

Our first gleam of hope and encouragement came to us about half an hour
before noon that day, when our anxious watching was rewarded by the
appearance of a small, momentary break in the sky, low down toward the
horizon to windward; it showed but for a moment, and then was lost
again. But presently a wider and more pronounced break appeared which
did _not_ vanish; on the contrary, it widened, until presently a fitful
gleam of wan and watery sunshine pierced through it and lighted up the
bleak, desolate expanse of raging ocean for a few seconds. And alm