being now untenable; and,
putting out to sea again, we bravely endeavoured to ride out the gale in
the offing under a close-reefed mainsail and fore-staysail, so as not to
be in too close proximity to the reef, which was doubly dangerous to us
now.

"Fortune favoured us in the attempt to weather the worst of the storm,
until shortly after daybreak; when, the rollers coming rolling in
heavier and more heavily each hour, the poor pinnace sank below the
surface of the sea in twenty-five fathoms of water, leaving thirteen of
us struggling for our lives some seven miles away from shore."

"That must have been awful!" said I sympathisingly.

"It was awful," replied Ben gravely. "I can hardly bear to tell of it
now."

VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

"The only things left floating in the water after the pinnace sank down
under us," resumed Ben after a lengthened pause, during which he puffed
vigorously at his pipe as if to make up for lost time as well as to
restore his equanimity, "were, the rain awning, a sort of long
tarpaulin; the sun awning, which was of lighter stuff, and soon got
saturated by the sea, making it go to the bottom too; a couple of oars
that had become, somehow or other, unfastened from the rowlocks and went
adrift; a pork breaker or barrel; and two water barricoes, one of which
was empty, while the other contained only about a couple of gallons of
the precious fluid which in a short time would be worth more to us than
gold--but, I'm anticipating matters.

"Five of the boat's crew went down almost as soon as the pinnace, thus
leaving only eight of us to battle against the waves and try to swim
ashore if we could; although I, for one, didn't believe a soul would
ever live to set foot on land again, that is if I gave any thought to it
at all!

"What the others did at the moment I can't say; for with that selfish
instinct of self-preservation which makes a man in the instant of danger
grasp anything, regardless of what his comrades in distress might be
doing, I grappled hold of one of the oars and the pork breaker, besides
the stern-sheet grating, which I forgot to say also floated from the
wreck. These I lashed together into a sort of raft with a long woollen
comforter, which I had fortunately wound round my neck the night before
while keeping watch to protect me from the damp dew, and now took off
for the purpose. I was treading water all the time I was doing this,
and the