gain gave a weak
stroke or two to turn her head to shore.

It was very tiring, and slow work, yet I did visibly gain ground; and, as
we drew near the Cape of the Woods, though I saw I must infallibly miss
that point, I had still made some hundred yards of easting. I was,
indeed, close in. I could see the cool, green tree-tops swaying together
in the breeze, and I felt sure I should make the next promontory without
fail.

It was high time, for I now began to be tortured with thirst. The glow of
the sun from above, its thousandfold reflection from the waves, the
sea-water that fell and dried upon me, caking my very lips with salt,
combined to make my throat burn and my brain ache. The sight of the trees
so near at hand had almost made me sick with longing; but the current had
soon carried me past the point; and, as the next reach of sea opened out,
I beheld a sight that changed the nature of my thoughts.

Right in front of me, not half a mile away, I beheld the _Hispaniola_
under sail. I made sure, of course, that I should be taken; but I was so
distressed for want of water that I scarce knew whether to be glad or
sorry at the thought; and, long before I had come to a conclusion,
surprise had taken entire possession of my mind, and I could do nothing
but stare and wonder.

The _Hispaniola_ was under her main-sail and two jibs, and the beautiful
white canvas shone in the sun like snow or silver. When I first sighted
her, all her sails were drawing; she was lying a course about north-west;
and I presumed the men on board were going round the island on their way
back to the anchorage. Presently she began to fetch more and more to the
westward, so that I thought they had sighted me and were going about in
chase. At last, however, she fell right into the wind's eye, was taken
dead aback, and stood there a while helpless, with her sails shivering.

"Clumsy fellows," said I; "they must still be drunk as owls." And I
thought how Captain Smollett would have set them skipping.

Meanwhile the schooner gradually fell off, and filled again upon another
tack, sailed swiftly for a minute or so, and brought up once more dead in
the wind's eye. Again and again was this repeated. To and fro, up and
down, north, south, east, and west, the _Hispaniola_ sailed by swoops and
dashes, and at each repetition ended as she had begun, with idly-flapping
canvas. It became plain to me that nobody was steering. And, if so, where
were the men? Eit