possible, but my old sailor habits
triumphed over the anxiety I felt, and the rest I so much needed came to
me.

In less than four hours I awoke. I found myself alone; so I sprang up
and put on my clothes, resolved that nothing should stop me from
proceeding on my journey. I felt far stronger than I could have
expected.

"Stay till my laddies come in, and hear what account they have to give
ye," said the kind-hearted old fisherman, making me sit down once more
in the porch in front of his cottage.

The roof was the bow of a small boat, which made a good shelter from the
sun, and the supporting-posts the jawbones of a whale which had been
stranded on the shore.

That I might have something to distract my mind he gave me a stick that
I might fashion it to support my steps as I walked along. When I had
cut it to the required length I sprang up, saying I would go on some
little way, at all events, begging his son to follow me; when we saw the
young man approaching the cottage from the north, I ran forward to meet
him.

"Have you heard anything of the smack?" I inquired, in breathless
haste.

"No; not a sign of her. There was a big ship lost with all hands--not a
soul escaped--in the early part of the night; but often when the big
ship goes down the small one swims; ye ken that, mon," was the answer.

Although he had been out for some hours, he insisted on accompanying me
when he found that I had resolved on proceeding, till we should fall in
with his brothers. The old man gave me his blessing, and the old wife
and the rest of the family parted most kindly with me--they were all so
much interested in the account I had given them of myself. As to
receiving any remuneration, they would not hear of it.

We toiled on over the links; sometimes I thought that my knees would
have given way under me. At last the old weather-beaten tower of
Broughty Castle appeared in sight, the ancient guardian to the entrance
of the Tay. "We'll just sit down here till the ferry-boat is ready to
cross," said my companion, throwing himself on the grass bank under the
crumbling walls. "Maybe my brother will be coming over just now, and he
will tell us what he has learned."

I suggested that the smack might have run up to Dundee, but he said that
was not in the least likely. If she had come in there she would have
brought up off Broughty itself. We made inquiries, before sitting down,
of some fishermen who had been on the shore