of timber which ran across the
platform and served to support the mast.

"What do you think of matters, Will?" asked Dick, after a long silence.
"If it comes on to blow, will this raft hold together?"

"I fear not," I answered; "at all events, we should find it a hard job
to keep alive on it if the sea were to get up, for it would wash over
and over us, and although we might hold on, our provisions would be
carried away. I hope, however, before another day is over that we shall
be picked up by some homeward-bound craft; but don't let such thoughts
trouble you, Dick. Having done our best, all we can do is to pray that
we may be preserved."

"I don't let them trouble me," answered Dick, "but still they will come
into my head. I've fought for my king and country, and have done my
duty, and am prepared for the worst."

"You should trust rather to One who died for sinners," I felt myself
bound to say. "He will save our souls though our bodies perish."

"I have never been much of a scholar, but I know that," answered Dick,
"and I believe that our officer knows it too. If he didn't, he would
not be as sound asleep as he is now."

I was very glad to hear Dick say this, for although we were at present
much better off than we might have been, I was fully alive to our
precarious situation. Even should the weather prove fine, we might not
reach the shore for many a day, and our provisions and water would not
hold out long, while, should it come on to blow, they might be lost, and
we should be starved, even if the raft should hold together and we had
strength to cling on to it.

Dick and I occasionally exchanged remarks after this, but still the time
went on very slowly. Neither of us had the heart to call up Mr Harvey;
but about midnight, as far as I could judge, he started up, and calling
Jacques, told Dick and me to lie down. We did so thankfully securing
ourselves with lashings one on either side of the mast. Before I closed
my eyes, I observed that not a star was twinkling in the sky which
seemed overcast down to the horizon. Though there was not much wind,
there was rather more than there had been, and there was still too much
sea on to allow us to set sail.

I was never much given to dreaming, but on this occasion, though I
closed my eyes and was really asleep, I fancied all sorts of dreadful
things. Now the raft appeared to be sinking down to the depths of the
ocean, now it rose to the top of a tremendous