h my hand. Then
I saw that it was half full of meal cakes, and that it had been cast
away because the meal was stinking. It was the weight of these rotten
cakes acting as ballast, that caused the tub to float upright in the
water. Now I bethought me, that if I could get into this barrel I should
be safe from the sharks for a while, but how to do it I did not know.

While I wondered, chancing to glance behind me, I saw the fin of a shark
standing above the water not twenty paces away, and advancing rapidly
towards me. Then terror seized me and gave me strength and the wit of
despair. Pulling down the edge of the barrel till the water began to
pour into it, I seized it on either side with my hands, and lifting my
weight upon them, I doubled my knees. To this hour I cannot tell how I
accomplished it, but the next second I was in the cask, with no other
hurt than a scraped shin. But though I had found a boat, the boat itself
was like to sink, for what with my weight and that of the rotten meal,
and of the water which had poured over the rim, the edge of the barrel
was not now an inch above the level of the sea, and I knew that did
another bucketful come aboard, it would no longer bear me. At that
moment also I saw the fin of the shark within four yards, and then felt
the barrel shake as the fish struck it with his nose.

Now I began to bail furiously with my hands, and as I bailed, the edge
of the cask lifted itself above the water. When it had risen some
two inches, the shark, enraged at my escape, came to the surface, and
turning on its side, bit at the tub so that I heard its teeth grate
on the wood and iron bands, causing it to heel over and to spin round,
shipping more water as it heeled. Now I must bail afresh, and had the
fish renewed its onset, I should have been lost. But not finding wood
and iron to its taste, it went away for a while, although I saw its fin
from time to time for the space of some hours. I bailed with my hands
till I could lift the water no longer, then making shift to take off my
boot, I bailed with that. Soon the edge of the cask stood twelve inches
above the water, and I did not lighten it further, fearing lest it
should overturn. Now I had time to rest and to remember that all this
was of no avail, since I must die at last either by the sea or because
of thirst, and I lamented that my cowardice had only sufficed to prolong
my sufferings.

Then I prayed to God to succour me, and never did I p