of desisting therefore, as soon as he had
detached the first cask, he commenced cutting loose a second, and
committing it to the sea in like manner.

Having freed a second, he continued on to a third, and then a fourth,
and was actually about to sever the lashings of a fifth one, with the
intention to leave only the sixth one--that which contained the stock of
precious water--attached to the _Catamaran_. He knew that the raft
would still float, without any of the casks to buoy it up; and it was
not any fear on that score that caused him to desist, when about to give
the cut to the cords that confined cask Number 5. It was an observation
which he had made of an entirely different nature; and this was, that
the third cask when set loose, and more especially the fourth, instead
of falling into the wake of the _Catamaran_, kept close by her side, as
if loath to part company with a craft to which they had been so
intimately attached.

William wondered at this, but only for a short moment. He was not slow
in comprehending the cause of the unexpected phenomenon. The raft, no
longer buoyed up, had sunk almost to the level of the surface; and the
breeze now failed to impel it any faster than the casks themselves: so
that both casks and _Catamaran_ were making leeway at a like rate of
speed, or rather with equal slowness.

Though the sailor-lad was dissatisfied on first perceiving this, after a
moment's reflection, he saw that it was a favourable circumstance. Of
course, it was not that the casks were making _more_ way to leeward, but
that the _Catamaran_ was making _less_; and, therefore, if there was a
chance of the swimmers coming up with the former, there was an equal
probability of their overtaking the latter,--which would be better in
every way. Indeed, the raft was now going at such a rate, that the
slowest swimmer might easily overtake her, provided the distance between
them was not too great.

It was this last thought that now occupied the mind of little William,
and rendered him anxious. Had the swimmers fallen too far into the
wake? Or would they still be able to swim on to the raft?

Where were they at that moment? He looked aft, towards the point from
which he supposed himself to have been drifting. He was not sure of the
direction; for the rude construction on which he stood had kept
constantly whirling in the water,--now the stem, now the quarters, anon
the bows, or beam-ends turned towards the bree