I was awake when Captain Miles came down at this time to consult the barometer, and I could hear what he said to Jackson, who had accompanied him below for something or other, the two talking together just outside my bunk.

"I'm sure I can't make it out at all," the captain said in rather a hopeless way. "Here's the glass keeping as high as possible, and yet the gale shows no token of lessening. What can it mean?"

"These cyclones are queer things, sir," responded Jackson. "I was in two while in a China trader, and sha'n't forget them in a hurry."

"I could understand it," continued Captain Miles as if reasoning with himself, "keeping on like this if we were in the Gulf of Mexico now, for it looks like what they call a norther there; but I've never heard of one of those winds being met in the Atlantic."

"It's something out of the common, sir," observed Jackson. "It's a cyclone, or hurricane, if I ever was in one, and I don't see as how we can do better than we are doing, sir."

"Well, we simply can't," said the captain. "We are running before it as hard as we can with only our bare sticks showing, for the vessel won't stand a rag of sail; so, it is utterly impossible to lay to and brave it out."

"Quite so, sir," responded the other. "All we can do is to carry on and trust to running out of it into calm weather. We ought to have made a long stretch to the southwards by now."

"So we have, Jackson," said Captain Miles. "We're now, I fancy, pretty well back where we lay so long in the calm, although perhaps a trifle more to the eastwards; but, if we run on much further, I'm sure I don't know where we'll bring up!"

There the conversation ended and I went off to sleep soon afterwards, although the creaking of the timbers and roar of the sea sounded terrific, making noise enough to drown the sound of everything else. I couldn't hear a footstep on the deck above me—all was hushed but the terrible turmoil of the elements.

I got up about six o'clock. I knew the hour by striking a match and looking at a little watch my father had given me just before I left home; for, it was all dark in the cabin, the ports and scuttles being closed and the dead-lights in the stern being up, while the doors in the bulkheads were drawn to, so as to keep out the sea from rushing in when a wave came over the forecastle.

Opening one of the sliding panels with some difficulty and pushing it back far enough for my body to get through, I emerged on the main-deck, thence managed to scramble on the poop, where the captain and Mr Marline were standing as well as Jackson, all holding on to the rigging. None of the officers had turned in all night, but I noticed that none of the hands were visible except the men at the helm, the captain allowing the rest to keep snug in the forecastle until they were wanted, for heavy seas were washing over the rails every now and then or coming in from the bows and sweeping the ship fore and aft, so there was no use in exposing the men unnecessarily when there was nothing really for them to do, as was the case now—no sail being set and only the wheel having to be attended to.

Ahead, astern, to the right hand and to the left, the sea was nothing but a mass of foam, while the air was thick with flying scud that was chopped off the heads of the great rolling waves every instant and whirled to leeward by the wind. This seemed sometimes actually to beat down the water and make it level with its tremendous strength, the billows springing up, after each gust, like india-rubber balls that had been pressed flat and then suddenly released, for they spirted up into the air, flinging their crests aloft one brief moment only to be decapitated the next by the sweeping scythe-like blast.

Far and wide, the ocean presented a magnificent picture of awful grandeur and howling desolation.

Above, the sky was of a dull leadenish hue, and there was nothing anywhere to be seen beyond sky and water save the poor Josephine tearing along through the chaotic maelstrom, labouring and groaning heavily as she rolled from side to side, dipping her yard-arms from time to time with each lurch, with the wind shrieking and whistling the most wonderful harp music through the rigging—nothing to be seen but the restless, roaring, heaving sea stretching away, like a boiling cauldron of soap-suds, to where the gloomy heavens met the angry horizon.

At mid-day, more from curiosity than anything else, as we had lost all track of our dead reckoning, Captain Miles had the log hove, when it was found that the vessel under her bare poles was going close on fourteen knots an hour. The force of the wind on her hull and spars was quite sufficient alone to achieve this speed, for the yards were braced square and the helm kept as steady amidships as the send of the waves would allow and the four men in charge of the spokes could manage.

And so, we continued all that day and night, the gale still keeping up to the same pitch when the fourth morning broke, with never a sign of cessation, while the sea was, if possible, rougher than before, causing us to ship the water over our bows continually.

Captain Miles was fairly cornered.

"I tell you what, Marline," he said towards the afternoon, "I don't think there is now any possible chance of the wind backing again; so, as she's taking in such a lot over the bows, we must try and get some sail on her, to rise out of the trough of the sea."

"I don't believe the mast will stand a rag, should we be able to hoist without its being blown to pieces," replied the first mate despondingly.

He seemed to have lost all heart, unlike the captain and Jackson, who were both still brave and cheerful, keeping up the spirits of the men. These latter, I could see, were beginning to lose their courage too, going about their duties with a sort of dogged stubbornness unlike their old ready way.

"Well, we'll try it at any rate. But, first, we must see to securing the masts. Get up a spare hawser and we'll rig a fresh stay round the head of the foremast, and then we'll set the foresail. That will lift her bows out of the water, if it only holds."

So saying, Captain Miles yelled out for the watch below, and the men presently came out from the forecastle, Davis, the whilom second mate, along with them, the lot shambling unwillingly along the deck to the galley, where they clustered in a body.

"Now, men," said the captain, "we must try and get some sail on the ship, or else we'll have all our timbers crushed in forwards by these seas; who'll volunteer to go aloft and help stay the foremast? It's risky work, and I don't like to order anyone to go."

Not a soul spoke in answer for a minute or so, and then Davis stepped out a pace in front of the others.

For a moment I was lost in admiration of what I conceived to be his pluck; but, the next instant, I perceived I had been too hasty in jumping at this conclusion.

"What do you take us for, Cap'en Miles?" Davis sang out sullenly. "Do you think that men are dogs to waste their lives for nothing? Why don't you go aloft yourself, if you are so anxious about the job?"

Captain Miles turned quite white, as he always did when his temper was up. He was then ready to dare anything, like most men of a deep nature.

"So I will, you mutinous scoundrel!" he cried; and he was just making his way down the poop-ladder to go forwards, when Jackson, almost jumping over his head, outstripped him, being down in the waist and up to the loiterers in a jiffey.

"Come on, you cowards!" the brave fellow exclaimed, clambering up into the fore-rigging and making for the top. "Who's man enough to follow me?"

There was no lack of volunteers now.

First one, and then another, scrambled likewise into the shrouds and climbed up after Jackson, only Davis being left below in his glory out of the whole watch.

Even he too was following; but, on Jackson shouting out something about his "not wanting any lubbers to help him," Davis sneaked back into the forecastle.

The others then set to work vigorously, rousing up the end of a spare hawser, which had been coiled round the mainmast bitts, and securing it round the foremast head. The ends of this stout rope were then hauled aft and made fast to the main-chains on either side, when, a purchase being rigged up and brought to the capstan, the hawser was hove taut— thus serving as a double preventer stay, to support the great strain there would be on the foremast when the fore course should be set, the mast even now bending before the gale although no sail was as yet on it.

"Now, men, loose the foresail!" shouted Captain Miles, much pleased with the sharp way in which the task had been accomplished through the men's promptitude. "Mind, though, and come down as soon as you've done it, for one doesn't know what may happen!"

"Aye, aye, sir, all right," sang out Jackson in reply; and under his orders the gaskets were quickly cast-off and the bunt dropped, when the men shinned down the rigging and ran the sheet aft, the sail blowing out like a big white cloud over the forecastle before the tacks could be belayed.

Fortunately, while taking in sail on the night of the thunder-storm, Jackson had caused the foresail to be reefed before being clewed up, and this precaution now stood us in good stead, as, instead of its being spread to its full extent, only a portion of the sail was exposed to the wind. This, however, was quite sufficient; for, small as it was, it tugged at the restraining ropes like a giant endeavouring to free himself from his bonds, flying out from the yards with spasmodic jerks and pulling at the mast in a way that showed that, if the spar had not had additional support, it would probably have been torn bodily away out of the ship.

The Josephine, though, soon felt the difference of having the sail on her; for, instead of now bowing to the seas and taking them in over her head, she rose buoyantly, dashing along, of course, with greater speed than before.

Captain Miles was quite triumphant over it.

"There, Marline, what do you think of that?" he said, rubbing his hands with much gusto. "Didn't I tell you so?"

"Yes, sir, so you did," answered the other; "but we'll wait and see how long it lasts."

"Bah! it will last our turn," said the captain, with a laugh at Mr Marline's obstinate retention of his own opinion. "Anyhow, it has eased the ship already."

"It hasn't eased the steering, though," retorted the mate. "We'll want six men at the helm if she goes on jumping like this. She's worse than a kangaroo now."

"Better leap over the waves than under them, having a ton of green water come over our bows every minute. Steady, there!"

"Steady it is, sir," replied Moggridge, who was acting as quartermaster.

"Keep her so, and mind to let her off when she seems inclined to broach to. I think we've seen the worst of it now, and can pipe down to dinner."

"I'm sure I sha'n't be sorry to have a fair mouthful to-day," said Mr Marline with a melancholy smile. "I haven't known what a good square meal was since the gale began, and think I could do justice to one now."

"So could I," replied the captain; and he went below to give Harry the steward some especial orders on the subject, the result being that the last pair of fowls occupying the nearly tenantless hen-coops were removed screaming to the cook's galley, to reappear an hour afterwards on the cabin table at the first regular dinner we were able to sit down to together for four days. The ship, although racing on still before the gale, was now riding more easily and rolling less, while no heavy seas came dashing aft from the forecastle to wash us all up in a heap pell-mell into the stern-sheets, as had hitherto been the case at meal- times—a moving mass of legs and arms, crockery-ware, savoury dishes, and table furniture in general!

When I again went on deck, the ship was going beautifully, tearing through the water like a racehorse and parting the waves on either side of her bows as if she were veritably ploughing the deep, the crests of the sea rising in foam over the fore-yard and floating in the air in the shape of spindrift and spray far astern.

The sky, too, had somewhat lost its leaden hue, clearing towards the zenith, where one or two odd stars could be seen occasionally peeping down at us through the storm rack that flew overhead like scraps of fleecy wool. This cheery prospect told us to be of good courage, leading us to hope that if we only waited patiently we might expect fine weather bye and bye.

At nine o'clock, the greater portion of the heavens was quite unobscured, the moon shining out, although looking pale and watery and with a big burr round her that showed the still unsettled condition of the atmosphere; the wind, strange to say, continuing to blow with almost as great force from the north-west as when it began, nearly forty-eight hours before.

"I'm afraid we're going to have a nasty night of it," said Captain Miles, who had just then come up from below with his sextant. "Still, I'm glad to see our old friend the moon again, however greasy she may look. I haven't been able to take an observation since Monday; so we'll see what a lunar may do in the way of fixing our position."

Just then, there was a break in the haze that had caused the watery appearance of the fair orb of night; and Captain Miles, taking advantage of the opportunity, took his angles, a sight of two of the constellations also helping his calculations, and giving him data to work upon. He then went down to his cabin again to work out the reckoning.

"Guess where we are, Marline?" he said when he came up for the second time. "I don't think you'll be able to tell within a degree!"

"Somewhere between the forties, I should think, with all this scudding about north and south," replied the other.

"Well, I make it that we're just about 33 degrees 10 minutes North, and 41 degrees West longitude. What do you think of that, eh?"

"Never!" exclaimed the first mate.

"But, it's true enough," returned Captain Miles. "I assure you I've tested my reckoning in every way, those star altitudes enabling me to correct my lunars. Yes, Marline, you see we did not lose so much by carrying on to the north as you fancied we would; and this blustering north-wester has now taken us almost eight hundred miles in the very direction we wanted to go. If we had lain to, as you wanted at first, we should now have been considerably to the southward of our position, and would probably have had to beat up northwards again; whereas now, as soon as the gale is blown out, we'll be right in the trades for home."

"And won't we touch the Gulf Stream, then?" I asked.

"No, my boy, thank goodness, we're a long way from that; but if you're anxious to see the Gulf-weed I told you about, we're now in its native home, a region called the Sargasso Sea."

"The Sargasso Sea!" I repeated. "I never heard of that before."

"No, I don't suppose you have," replied Captain Miles in answer to my implied question. "It is a name applied to a calm expanse of the ocean between the Gulf Stream and the Equatorial Current, and is called so from the Sargassum, or Gulf-weed, which is continually found floating there—that is, when the wind is not too strong, as now, to blow it elsewhere. You'll see plenty of the stuff as soon as the gale lulls, which it must do now, I think, in a very few hours."

"Are you going to carry on still before it, sir?" asked Mr Marline.

"Of course," answered the captain. "The ship is sailing easily and not straining herself, as she would do if lying-to; and we can't run into any harm following the same course till morning. I intend to work the gale in the same way as a friend of mine once treated a runaway horse. It first started off to please itself, and then he made it keep up its pace to please him; so, as the wind has chosen to blow us along at its own sweet will all this time, it shall now drive the ship at my pleasure. What do you say, Master Tom, eh?"

"I say it's a very good plan, captain," I replied laughing.

"Well, my boy, I'll tell you of another good plan, and that is to go below and turn in, as I purpose doing. Mr Marline," added the captain to the first mate, "please take the first watch. I'll relieve you at midnight; I don't think there'll be any change before then."

With these words, Captain Miles, who had been on deck almost continuously now for two days and nights, went down to the cabin to have a couple of hours of much-needed repose; and taking his hint as an order, good-humouredly as it was spoken, I followed him at once.

Nor was I anything loth either to go to my bunk; for I had eaten a hearty dinner which made me feel drowsy. After I had turned in, too, there being no excitement to keep me awake, and the ship being quite safe, there being now every prospect of the gale coming soon to an end, I slept like a top—Harry the steward having to wake me again next morning to tell me that breakfast was ready, and coming twice to shake my bunk before I would turn out.

When I subsequently went on deck, I could soon see that the weather had altered for the better.

Although the sea was still rough, the clouds had cleared away from the sky entirely, not a speck of hazy vapour being discernible anywhere, while the sun was shining down brightly and warmly, enlivening the whole scene around and making the ocean, in spite of its still rough condition, almost look pleasant; the white wreaths of spray, broken-off by the wind from the tops of the waves, glistening with the prismatic hues of the rainbow as they were tossed up in the air on clashing billow meeting billow.

On board the ship, also, matters had considerably improved, only two men being required at the helm in place of four, for the vessel was ever so much more easy to steer; and, I could see preparations being made in the waist for bending a new main-topsail and mizzen staysail in place of those that had been blown away when we were in the vortex of the hurricane.

It was a difficult job getting the remains of the old main-topsail off the yard, the wind blowing still with great force and the men having to hold on with all their might. But, after an hour's labour, the task was accomplished, and then the new piece of canvas was sent up into the top by the halliards, where, after being bent and close-reefed, it was sheeted home and the yard hoisted up again, spreading the sail.

The mizzen staysail followed suit; and then, seeing that the ship bore the pressure pretty well, Captain Miles ordered the fore-topmast staysail to be hoisted. This brought the Josephine more up to the wind, the vessel now sailing with it about a couple of points abaft the beam.

She heeled over tremendously, burying all the lee bulwarks under water, with the sea rushing along her channels like a mill-race; but, she held to it bravely, and we all congratulated ourselves on having weathered the storm and carried out Captain Miles's boast of making the gale serve his purpose, thus turning a foul wind into a fair one.

Towards mid-day, the captain took an observation, which amply corroborated his lunars of the previous evening, we being found to be in 32 degrees North latitude and 40 degrees West longitude, the slight difference between this and his former reckoning being due to the distance we had run during the night.

The wind still held up, however, and although we were carrying more canvas than we really ought to have had on the ship in such a gale, Captain Miles was just thinking of setting the spanker and bending a new fore-topsail, when, as if it had been all at once shut off from its source, the strong north-western wind in a moment ceased to blow.

At this time there was not a single cloud on the horizon anywhere, the sky being absolutely clear and beautifully blue; but I noticed something like a white wall of water on our port bow advancing towards the Josephine.

The sight resembled an enormous wave raised up to twenty times the height of those in our more immediate vicinity.

"Look, Mr Marline!" I cried. "What is that there to the left?"

He glanced where I pointed, and so did Jackson, the latter singing out the moment he caught sight of the wave to the two men at the wheel, who were Davis and a German sailor, "Down with the helm—sharp!"

"Hullo! what's the matter?" exclaimed Captain Miles, hearing the order and raising himself up from the cabin skylight where he had been bending over his log-book, in which he had been jotting down an entry. "What's up now?"

"Something uncommonly like a white squall, sir," hurriedly explained Jackson. "It's coming down fast on us from windward, and will be on us in a jiffey. Down with the helm sharp, don't you hear?" he called out a second time to the helmsmen.

Captain Miles, quite startled now, looked round, and seeing the great wave of water, now quite close, borne before the coming wind, repeated the order to put down the helm more sharply still, adding also to the watch on duty:

"Cast-off the topsail sheets and let everything go by the run!"

Whether Davis heard the order to let the ship's head fall off and wilfully disobeyed it, on account of its coming from Jackson, whom he hated, or whether he was paralysed with terror at the approach of this new danger, after our having passed through all the perils of the cyclone, no one could say; but he not only did not turn the spokes of the wheel himself, but he absolutely prevented the other man from doing so.

Seeing the vessel did not answer the helm, the captain and Jackson together darted aft, dragging away Davis and fiercely jamming the wheel down as hard as they could.

The movement, however, came too late.

Before the Josephine's bows could pay off, a terrific blast of wind, worse than anything that had yet assailed her, struck her sideways. Over she was borne to leeward, dipping and dipping until her yard-arms; and then, the tops of her masts, touching the water, becoming gradually immersed as the ship canted.

At the same moment, too, with a loud double report, the foresail and main-topsail blew out of the bolt-ropes, floating away in the distance. But this relief, great as it was, did not right the ship, for the huge white wave, following the gust, forced her over still more on her side; and, in less time than I have taken to tell of the occurrence, the Josephine was on her beam-ends and every soul on board struggling in the water for dear life.

"Hole on, Mass' Tom, hole on!" I heard Jake's voice cry somewhere, as I sank beneath the rocking surges that were in an instant cresting over the poop. "Hole on, Mass' Tom, hole on!"

I tried to battle with the sea, but it bore me down, and down, and down.

And then—I felt I was drowning!



CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

IN DIRE PERIL.

Jake's voice seemed ever so far away in the distance, and there was a confused sort of humming, buzzing noise in my ears; while some heavy weight on the top of my head appeared to be pressing me down, although I struggled frantically to free myself.

It was all in vain, though.

I was whirled round and round in an eddy of the sea; and soon my efforts ceased.

Then, all at once, when almost the sense of suffocation had passed, I felt a hand grasp my collar at the back of my neck; and, oh, gracious heaven! I was dragged above the surface and drew once more a breath of air. I took in a gulp of water with this; but, in spite of the water, the air was the sweet essence of life and I breathed again!

I had been in a dream before—a terrible dream; now I came to myself, and my recollection returned.

The buzzing sounds that had previously echoed through my brain resolved themselves into the hoarse shouts of the crew of the Josephine; the exclamations of the sailors being mingled with the roaring, crashing break of the waves as they washed over the wreck, and the creaking and rending of the timbers of the poor ship, while, nearer yet to me, I could distinguish the cheering cry of faithful Jake:

"Hole up, Mass' Tom, um got um safe now. Hole up an' take good breff; we'se all right, an' ebberybody safe!"

At the same moment that he spoke Jake lifted me up on something which I could feel with my feet, and I opened my eyes.

At first, I was almost blinded by the sea-water which had got into them, and the salt spray which continually dashed over my head; but, in a minute or two, I was able to see where I was and grasp the situation.

The ship was lying over on her starboard side, with her decks submerged up to the hatches, and her masts horizontal on the surface of the sea; but, the whole of her port side was clear out of the water, and, although the waves were breaking over this, still the major part of the quarter and a portion of the poop were almost high and dry in the intervals between the following rollers that ever and anon swept up to their level.

On this after part of the ship, Jake had managed to clamber up, lugging me along with him; and, as I looked round, I could recognise Captain Miles and Mr Marline, as well as several others of the hands, who had sought such a vantage-ground of safety.

Away forwards, the Josephine was completely buried in the huge billows that were constantly surging over her; but here, too, clinging on to the main-chains was another group of sailors, amongst whom I could make out the tall figure of Jackson, with Cuffee and Davis close beside him.

Captain Miles perceived me almost as soon as I saw him.

"Ah, there you are, Tom!" he cried. "Thank God you are not lost! I made a hard grab at you when the ship heeled over, but missed you; and thought that the skylight hatch carried you away overboard when it lifted."

"Me watchee him sharp, sah," explained Jake. "I'se see de squall comin' an' run aft for tell, an' den I clutch hole Mass' Tom, an' here we is!"

"You've saved your young master then," exclaimed the captain; "so, Tom, you've got to thank the darkey instead of me! But, how many of us have escaped?"

As he said this, Captain Miles glanced about and appeared to be reckoning up the list of the crew on his fingers, for I could see his lips move.

"Marline, you're all right, eh?" he went on presently, speaking out aloud.

"Oh, yes, I'm here, thanks to Providence," said the first mate with almost a sob in his voice. It told better than words his gratitude to the power on high that had preserved him.

"And Jackson, I see, with Davis and Cuffee," continued the captain, running through the names of the survivors as far as he could make them out.

"There's Adze, the carpenter, too, in the main-chains, with those two German sailors, Hermann and Gottlieb; while there are five more of the hands alongside me," said Mr Marline looking round, too, and taking stock.

"But, where's Moggridge?" asked Captain Miles, missing the boatswain at that moment and not seeing him anywhere. I felt my heart sink at the thought that he was gone.

"Here I am, your honour," however, sang out the old fellow, climbing up over the stern gallery. "I almost lost the number of my mess; but I've managed to cheat Davy Jones this time."

"That makes, with Master Tom here, just sixteen souls, out of eighteen we had on board, all told," said the captain. "Anybody seen the steward?"

"No, he isn't here, poor fellow," replied Mr Marline. "He was below in his pantry at the time the squall struck us, and must have been drowned before he could scramble out."

"There's only one other, then, missing," said the captain. "Count the hands again, Marline."

The first mate did this; and, then, it was found, on hailing Jackson in the main-chains—the sea at present making a breach between us and dividing our forces—that the other sailor was a man named Briggs, who had been ailing for some days past. He had been in his bunk in the forecastle when the ship capsized, so his fate was almost as certain as that of Harry, the mulatto steward.

All things considered, though, it was a great mercy, from the sudden nature of the calamity, that so many of us should have been saved. But for the fact of the accident having occurred in the afternoon, when the majority of the hands were fortunately on deck aft, many more lives would undoubtedly have been lost.

However, albeit temporarily preserved from the peril of a watery grave, our outlook, clustered there together on the outside of the partly- submerged vessel, was a very sorry one; for, the sea was still running high, and the waves were breaking over us in sheets of foam, and, although the sun was shining down and the air was comparatively warm, this made us feel most uncomfortable. Besides, the continual onslaught of the rolling billows necessitated our holding on to everything we could get a grip of, to prevent ourselves from being washed away.

We had to lie along the side of the ship, grasping the mizzen rigging, which attitude was a very wearying one; for, the sea would lift us up as the swell surged by, and then, we had to take a fresh grip, our feet sliding down the hull as the billow retired and the vessel sunk down in the hollow.

"I say, Marline," called out the captain presently, "as you are nearest the signal halliards, do you think you can manage to run them clear?"

"I'll try, sir," answered the other; and Moggridge, who had now crept alongside the mate, helping him, the two contrived to haul out the rope in question.

"Now, who's got a knife handy?" next inquired Captain Miles.

There was half a dozen replies to this question; but, ere the article wanted could be passed along, the old boatswain had drawn out his from his waistband by means of the lanyard slung round his neck, and was busily employed in cutting up the signal halliards into short lengths of about a fathom each.

"Ah, I see you guessed what I was after," said the captain noticing this. "If we lash ourselves to the rigging here, it will save us a world of exertion and trouble, besides leaving our hands free for other purposes."

"Aye, aye, sir, I know'd what you want," responded Moggridge, and passing down the pieces of rope as he cut them off, all of us were pretty soon well secured from being washed away, each man helping to tie up his neighbour in turn.

"Golly, massa, dis am a purdicafirment!" ejaculated Jake, grinning as usual, and with his ebony face shining with the spray; "I'se 'gin feel want grub—um precious hungry."

"I am afraid that'll not be our only want, my poor fellow," said Captain Miles in a melancholy voice; but rousing himself a minute afterwards he added more cheerfully, "Wait till the sea gets down, and then we'll try to improve our condition. I wonder, though, how these other fellows are getting on in the chains amidships? Jackson, ahoy!"

"Hullo, sir," came a faint hail in answer, from amid the breaking seas further on ahead of us, where only a black spot of a head could be seen occasionally emerging from the mass of encircling foam.

"Are you all right there?" sang out the captain.

"We're alive, sir; but nearly tired out," replied Jackson in a low weak tone.

"Can't you try, man, to work your way aft and join us," urged Captain Miles, comprehending how exhausted the young seaman and his companions there must be. "There's plenty of room here for all of us, and you'll not be so much worked about by the sea."

"The waves are too strong for us, sir," cried out the other, but his voice now seeming to have a little more courage in it, for he added after a bit, "I think we can manage it, though, if you will make fast the bight of the topsail sheet and heave the end to us. It will serve us to hold on by as we pass along the bulwarks."

"All right, my hearty," answered Captain Miles, he and a couple of the sailors beside him doing as Jackson had suggested.

Then, the captain himself, undoing his lashings, seized one of the brief intervals in which the after part of the hull rose above the sea; when, standing on his feet, while his legs were held by the two sailors, he hove the end of the rope towards Jackson, who, clutching hold of it, secured it to the main-shrouds, whence it was stretched taut to the mizzen rigging, thus serving as a sort of life-line by which the men could pass aft.

When this was done, the men with Jackson in the main-chains crept cautiously along the bulwarks, half in and half out of the water, clutching on to the topsail sheet hand over hand, soon joined us on the quarter galley—the young second mate being the last to leave, waiting until his comrades were in safety.

The passage from the one place to the other was perilous in the extreme; for, the waves surged up sometimes completely over the poor fellows' heads, when they had once abandoned their footing and had only the frail swaying rope to support them against the wash of the water. They were roughly oscillated to and fro, hove up out of the sea one minute and lowered down again into it the next.

It was a wonder some of them did not fall off, getting sucked under the keel of the ship; but, gripping the life-line with a clutch of desperation, their passage across the perilous bridge was at last safely accomplished, when the entire sixteen of us, including my own humble self, were at length gathered together in one group on the counter-rail below the bend of the poop. The new-comers were then lashed to the mizzen rigging like the rest of us, and we all waited with what hope and patience we could for the sea to calm down.

By this time, it was late in the afternoon; and, presently, the sun sank down away to the west in his ocean bed, surrounded by a radiant glow of crimson and gold that flashed upward from the horizon to the zenith.

The wind had died away too, the last violent squall which had been so disastrous to the Josephine, having been the expiring blast of the hurricane; so, although, as I've said, the sea still continued to run high, the waves rolled by more regularly and with an equal pulsation, as if Father Neptune was rocking himself gradually to sleep. The old tyrant was evidently; exhausted with the mad rioting in which he had recently been indulging, and the thrashing which the gale had given him!

There was no sleep for us, however, excepting such hasty little droppings off into brief forgetfulness that our worn-out bodies gave way to for an instant; for we were constantly being roused up, almost as soon as our wearied eyelids had closed, by the sudden rush of the spent wash of some broken wave wetting our already wet garments. This banished all thoughts of repose; and, when the darkness of night came on, it was cold and dreary in the extreme, the hours seeming to drag out to the length of a lifetime.

Poor faithful Jake lay close to me so as to protect me as much as possible from the wash of the sea; and I found out, when morning light came once more to cheer us, that he had actually stripped off a guernsey vest, which Captain Miles had given him to save him from exposure on the night of the thunder-storm, and had fastened this round my shoulders in order to keep me warm!

I shall never forget Jake's thoughtful action, I believe, as long as I live, for it made a great impression on me when I discovered such a striking proof of his devotion; and, as I now retrace the incidents of the past, the incident stands out prominently in evidence of a negro's brotherly love.

Why, his black skin always seemed white to me ever after. Aye, although born an African, his heart was truer than that of many a European, whose complexion is only a trick of colour!

During the night we were all silent; but, when the sun rose in the east, flooding the sea with the rosy tint of dawn, hope came back to us and our tongues were unloosed—the more especially as the force of the waves had considerably lessened, hardly a scrap of spray being now washed over us, while the blows of the billows against the side of the ship were no longer heard.

The sea really was calming down at last.

God was watching over us!

"Say, captain," said Mr Marline, who was the first to bestir himself, "do you think there's any prospect of our righting the ship?"

The captain was asleep, I believe, for the first mate had to repeat his question twice before he could get an answer.

"I'm sure I hope so," at last sleepily muttered Captain Miles, with a portentous yawn—"only wait till the swell calms down and we'll see about it."

"But it is calm now," rejoined the other.

"Then wake me again when it is calmer," replied Captain Miles; and then, he turned on his side and proceeded with his nap as coolly as if he were comfortably tucked up in his nice swinging cot in the cabin.

"Well!" exclaimed Mr Marline, "of all the cool, self-possessed men I ever met in my life, you beat the lot!"

He was talking to himself, but the hands heard him, and there was a general snigger all round, the captain's very composure having given confidence to all. The men believed that he would not have taken things so quietly unless he had some sure hope of our speedy release from such a precarious position.

"He is a rare brave un," put in Moggridge. "I've sailed with him man and boy for many a v'y'ge afore this, and I allers found him the same, calm and plucky in danger, and keeping a stiff upper lip when in perils that frighten other folk. Captain Miles, sir, is a man as a sailor should be proud to sail under—that's what I says!"

"Eh, what, what?" murmured the captain, half waking up on hearing his name spoken, and lifting his head from between his clasped hands.

"I was a-saying, sir, as how you knew what's what," replied the boatswain, "and I don't know of any other man I'd say sich of."

"Belay that," said Captain Miles, rousing up now and rubbing his eyes. "Ah, it's morning, I see! Well, Mr Marline, and how goes it?"

"As well as can be expected under the circumstances," answered the other.

"Bother circumstances," rejoined the captain; "we must make the best of them we can. Now, let us see what's to be done."

"Do you think we can right her, sir?" asked the mate repeating his old query.

"Right her? yes, certainly, if we can cut away the masts. She's not water-logged, and all sound below, I fancy, as far as I can see; for the hatches have been battened down since Monday."

"But she's rather down by the head, sir," said Mr Marline, as the two rose on their feet and proceeded to look round the vessel as well as they could from the top of the poop bulwarks, whence they surveyed her position and surroundings.

"Ah!" exclaimed Captain Miles, "the fore-peak must have been left open when those spare sails were got out, so that she has taken in some water there. Never mind, though, there's a stout bulkhead separating the compartment from the main hold, and, if there's no leak below, we'll be all right."

"But, the masts have been working the decks all this time," suggested the mate, "and if the sea has got in through the straining of the timbers we must sink in time."

"Sink your grandmother, Marline!" retorted the captain, "you forget that our main cargo is rum, which is ever so much lighter than water, and more buoyant. As long as we have that below we'll float, never you fear! But, the job is to cut away the masts if we can; she'll never right, of course, till that is done. A pity your rigging was so well set up, Marline! If the sticks had only gone by the board when the squall struck us we'd be all right now."

"I don't know that, captain," replied the other. "If the masts had been badly stayed they would have gone in the height of the hurricane; and then, where would we be now?"

"Not in the Sargasso Sea, I fancy," said Captain Miles with a hearty laugh. "But we can't do anything yet, though, till the sea has gone down more. Men," he added, "keep your pecker up! Providence having watched over us thus far will now not desert us, I am confident, and we'll yet weather on Mr Marline's circumstances!"

All hands gave a cheer at this hopeful speech, and the sun having by this time dried our soddened clothes besides warming us, we began to feel more comfortable and easy, the captain's words giving us fresh courage.

Towards noon, however, the heat brought on a most terrific thirst, which was all the more painful from our not seeing any chance of relieving it; for, although, like the "ancient mariner," we saw "water, water everywhere," there was not a drop of the wholesome fluid, as far as we knew, that we could drink.

In this dire calamity, Jackson proved our guardian angel.

"I say, captain," he called out, after climbing along the bulwarks down into that part of the waist of the ship which was clear of the sea, letting himself swing down by the end of the topsail halliards which were belayed to the side, "there's one of the water-casks lashed here that did not fetch away to leeward with the rest when she canted over; and it's full too. If anyone has got a hat, or anything that I can draw off the water in, I will start the bung and we can all splice the main- brace."

"Hurrah!" shouted Captain Miles. "That's the best news I have heard for many a day. Here, Marline, pass him down my wide-awake. Mind how you drive out the bung, Jackson, and have something ready to close up the hole again; or else, all the contents of the cask will be wasted 'fore the hands are served round."

"I'll take care, sir," replied the young seaman, who had now turned the end of the topsail halliards into a bight round his body, so that he could swing down in front of the water-cask and yet have his hands free.

Then, taking out a marlinespike, which had caught in the rigging somehow or other, he managed, after several blows on either side of the cask, to start the bung. This, from the position in which the ship was lying, was now horizontal instead of perpendicular; so, as soon as it came out, the water flowed at once into the captain's wide-awake hat, which Jackson had under the bung-hole, stopping up this again with the cork as soon as the hat was full.

Mr Marline was bending down from the bulwarks above him to receive the strange jug when the other handed it up to him, and he passed it on to Captain Miles, who allowed me to have the first drink.

It tasted like nectar—better than any draught I had ever had before or since!

Captain Miles himself then took a gulp of the grateful contents of his old hat, passing it on to Moggridge; and, when emptied, as it very soon was, the wide-awake was filled and refilled by Jackson until every man had satisfied his thirst—the last to enjoy the water which he had been the means of procuring being the brave young seaman himself, just in the same way as he had been the last to quit the post of danger when helping his shipmates out of the main-chains.

Quenching our thirst gave us all new life; so, later on in the afternoon, Captain Miles set the men to work casting off the ropes as best they could with the idea of freeing the masts. However, we could do nothing without an axe, for no man had anything handier than his clasp-knife, which naturally was of no use in helping to cut away the cordage and heavy spars that kept the ship down on her beam-ends.

What was to be done?

We were all in a dilemma, one man suggesting one thing, and another proposing a fresh plan for getting rid of the masts; when, Adze, the carpenter, who had said nothing as yet, spoke for the first time.

"I left a large axe o' mine," he said quietly, as if saying nothing particularly worthy of notice—"I left a large axe o' mine in my bunk in the fo'c's'le; and if ary a one can git down theer, he'll find it on the top side to his starboard hand as he goes in."

"But, the fo'c's'le's full of water," said Mr Marline, "and a man must be a good diver to creep in there and get the axe under eight or twelve foot of sea! Besides, I daresay it will have been washed away from where Adze put it in his bunk, the lurch of the ship having shifted everything to leeward."

"It war to leeward already in the top bunk, I tell 'ee," rejoined the carpenter; "an', bein' that heavy, I spec's it's theer right enough. Only I can't dive, nor swim above water for that matter, so it's no use my going after it."

"I'll go, massa captain," shouted out Jake, who had been listening eagerly to this conversation. "I'se dibe like porpuss an' swim like fiss."

"I know that," said Captain Miles laughing. "I recollect the way you came aboard my ship. But you can try if you like, darkey. If you find that axe, you'll be the saving of all of us, and give a fair return for your passage, my hearty!"

Jake did not need any further persuasion.

Making his way along the bulwarks, he clambered on to the main rigging, now lying flat across the capsized vessel, until he came to a clear space between the mainmast and the forecastle, from whence the boats and cook's galley had been washed away. Jumping into the water at this point, he swam towards the spot where he thought the entrance to the forecastle should lie, for the sea was washing about forward, and nothing to be seen above the surface but a small portion of the port bulwarks near the dead-eyes of the fore-shrouds and a bit of the port cat-head.

Jake then dived below the water, disappearing from our view for a few seconds that seemed interminable as we waited.

"I hope he hasn't come to grief," said Captain Miles anxiously. "So many things have been carried away and jumbled up in a mass there forwards, that the poor fellow might get fixed in and be drowned, without the chance of saving himself."

But his alarm was quite unnecessary, Jake rising above the water in another moment and scrambling up into the main rigging, in a very hurried manner, as if something was pursuing him.

His face as he turned it towards us was almost green with fright, and we could hear his teeth chattering with fear and cold combined.

"Well," sang out Captain Miles, "I'm glad to see you out of that hole alive. But, what's the matter, my man? have you got the axe?"

"N-n-n-no, Mass' Cap'en," stuttered Jake, making his way aft again along the bulwarks, "got no axe nor nuffin'. Dere am duppy or de debbil in de fo'c's'le. Bress de Lor', dis pore niggah only sabe him life an'—dat all!"



CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

A GLEAM OF HOPE.

"You one big fool!" Cuffee, the cook, screamed out at hearing Jake's startling announcement, which made us all laugh in spite of our anxiety. "How can duppy come in de daylight, hey? You only see yer own black face in water, an' tink um debbil."

"Duppy," I may explain, is the negro's common name for what they call a ghost, or anything uncanny.

However, paying no attention to his brother darkey's reasoning as to the impossibility of such a nocturnal visitor appearing under the searching rays of the sun, Jake stoutly maintained his own opinion.

"Dere was sumfin' white dere, I swar," he said, as soon as he had secured his footing on the bulwarks again, well out of the water. "I see sumfin' white an' cold, an' he grab me by um leg."

"That must have been poor Briggs's body floating about in the fo'c's'le," observed Captain Miles. "I forgot to tell him of it before he dived down. Hi, Jake," he added speaking out louder, "you needn't be afraid. I know what it was you saw."

"D'ye, massa?" said Jake somewhat distrustfully, as if only half believing this. "Golly, it um berry mysteferious. I'se tink—; but, Jerrybosalum, look dar, Mass' Cap'en, look dar!" he suddenly exclaimed, his voice again changing to a tone of intense horror, while he looked the picture of abject terror, his eyeballs rolling and his teeth chattering as before. "Duppy come catchee me, for suah! Dere he am comin' up wid him long claw—dere he am—dere he am!"

We all rose up on the side of the bulwarks, as if with one accord, looking in the direction to which Jake's trembling hand pointed, where, between the meshes of the rigging away forward in front of the mainmast we could dimly discern a long sinuous greenish-white body gradually rising to the surface of the water that covered the lower part of the deck.

The mysterious thing seemed to make after the negro, although no apparent movement was perceptible, while its colour became more luminous as it got nearer.

Jackson was closer than any of us to Jake; and, as he stood up in the main-chains to help the negro up, he perceived what the object was that had frightened him, for he could see down into the water clear of the rigging, which somewhat hampered our view.

"Why, it's a shark!" he called out. "It is a big fellow too—larger than the brute that nearly tackled me the other day."

"A shark, Massa Jackson, for true, hey?" said Jake, turning round to assure himself of the fact; and, then, seeing his pursuer to be of no supernatural origin, as he had supposed, but only one of the ordinary, if ugly, denizens of the deep, his alarm disappeared instanter and he burst into a fit of laughing—his African nature being as susceptible as that of a child, his moods varying in a moment.

"Yah, yah," he roared, "me no 'fraid ob shark; I'se tink him ider one duppy or de debbil, for suah, when um touch me on de shin-bone!"

"I'se tole you so, Jake," said Cuffee with great contempt. "You'se nebber see duppy in de daylight. You'se only big fool to tink so."

"Berry well," rejoined the other, "you hab your 'pinion an' I hab mine! If you was down dar in water jus' now, an' see dat long ting snouzle by um leg, lookin' so white an' drefful, I guess you'se frit too!"

If Jake, however, was now pleased at seeing his fancied ghost turn out to be a shark, this was more than we were. Captain Miles could hardly conceal his chagrin.

"Confound the hideous brute!" he exclaimed. "He's the very last visitor I cared to see. He will prevent any further attempt being made to get that axe out of the fo'c's'le—if it is there, as Adze says."

"It's theer sure enough, cap'en," put in the carpenter hearing this remark. "I wish I could only swim and I'd precious soon fetch it myself!"

"All right, Adze, I don't doubt your word," said the captain apologetically; "but the shark has put an embargo on it now at any rate."

"I'm afraid it just has," observed Mr Marline, to whom Captain Miles had really been speaking when the old carpenter overheard him. "You can't expect any sensible man to dive into the water when such a nasty sort of neighbour is close at hand. I wouldn't like to venture, for one, I confess; and I don't think I'm a very great coward."

"No, Marline, no; I'll answer for that," replied the captain warmly. "Your worst enemy wouldn't accuse you of any want of pluck, and really I should not' care about undertaking the job either, for that matter."

Jake, though, wanted to make another effort to recover the axe, his courage rising with the emergency, especially as he could notice how disappointed we all were.

"Me nebber mind shark," he cried, drawing out a long clasp-knife which he carried in his belt, and opening the blade, which he now brandished about in a most ferocious way, showing how he would make mincemeat of the sea-pirate if it attacked him. "I'se not 'fraid ob him one lilly bit. I tell you wat, I'se gib him goss if um kick up any bobbery wid me!"

So saying, he was preparing to plunge again into the water, when Captain Miles ordered him to refrain, having to repeat his command twice before the brave fellow would stop from making the venture.

"No, Jake," said the captain, "I can't allow you to risk your life in such a foolhardy way for what may be only a wild-goose chase. Wait awhile and see if the brute is going to remain here. Perhaps, too, there may be some more of his comrades about; they generally hunt in couples in stormy weather."

"All right, massa, me wait an' see," responded Jake submissively, sitting down on the bulwarks again; and then, we all watched the shark to see what he would do, and whether, as the captain had suggested, there were any more of his species about, coming up to help him in keeping us prisoners.

Unfortunately, Captain Miles's fears proved but too well founded. Very shortly afterwards, no less than three other sharks appeared, hovering about the stern of the ship and swimming immediately under the counter, where we were clustered together, as if keeping guard over us. The one that had pursued Jake took up his station within the interior part of the submerged vessel, patrolling backwards and forwards in the water that covered the deck of the poop up to the mizzen-mast. This fellow, the first in the field, seemed to say to us grimly, "You sha'n't escape me here, at all events!"

"Oh, Captain Miles!" I cried. "The sharks are going to wait until we drop off into the sea one by one, and then they will eat us all!"

"Not a bit of it, my boy," said he hopefully, to cheer me up. "They'll soon be tired out and will then swim away and leave us to see about righting the ship. Don't think of them, Tom; they can't touch any of us where we are."

"But how long can we stop like this?" I asked despairingly.

"Long enough to bother the sharks," he replied. "They haven't pluck enough to wait when they see they've got no chance; for, they're born cowards at heart, as all sneaking things are!"

Jake also sidled up to me at the same time and somewhat restored my equanimity, saying in his light-hearted way, "Golly, Mass' Tom, we kill um all first wid um knife 'fore dey touch you!"

The afternoon waned on; so, as the sharks exhibited no signs of yet leaving us, and the evening was closing in, Captain Miles ordered the men to lash themselves again to the rigging for fear of their tumbling off in the night and so falling a prey to the brutes—otherwise, there was no great need of the precaution, for the sea was almost now calm, the waves having quite ceased to break. Only a heavy swell lifted the ship up at intervals, letting her roll down again, and swaying gently to and fro with a gentle rocking motion which would have sent us all to sleep but for the hunger which now kept us awake with a nasty, gnawing pain at the pit of our stomachs.

Our thirst was appeased, Jackson having swung himself down to the water- cask and served out another drink all round shortly after the sharks had made their appearance, as they could not approach near enough to the waist of the ship to interfere with his movements, the deck there being clear of water. But, oh, we did feel hungry!

"I believe I could a'most eat anything now," said Moggridge plaintively, chewing away at a piece of leather which he had torn off one of his boots.

"Only hold out and we'll get something soon," replied the captain, who tried nobly to keep up the spirits of the men. "We've got water, and that is more than many a poor fellow has had when in as bad a plight as ours. Let us be thankful for what we have got and for having our lives spared so far! To-morrow, if the sea be calm, as there is every reason to hope it will be, we'll probably be able to fetch something out of the cabin; while, if the worst comes to the worst, I've no doubt we'll be able to pick up some crabs and shell-fish from the Gulf-weed floating around."

"Right you are, sir," said Moggridge, ashamed of having spoken. "I see lots of the stuff about us now."

"Is that the Gulf-weed you told me about, captain?" I asked, pointing to some long strings of what looked like the broken-off branches of trees, with berries on them, that were washing past the hull of the Josephine on the top of the rolling swell.

"Yes, Tom, we're now in the Sargasso Sea, its own especial home. Indeed, this region is especially so called on account of the 'Sargassum,' or weed, in the Portuguese tongue. You ask Mr Marline and he'll tell you all about it, being learned in such matters."

The first mate, however, did not wait for me to question him.

Taking the captain's observation as a hint to say something to occupy the attention of the men and myself, and so keep us from thinking of the sharks and our painful position, he proceeded to narrate all he knew about this curious marine fungus. He had a good deal to say, too, for Mr Marline was a well-read man and took a great interest in all matters of science.

It was certainly a very novel situation in which to give a lecture, but the sailors were glad enough to listen to anything to make the time pass. They were very attentive auditors, even Jake appearing interested, although he could not have understood much of what he heard.

"The Sargasso, or weedy, Sea," said Mr Marline, "so called from the berries, like grapes, 'sarga' in Portuguese, extends from about the eleventh parallel of latitude to 45 degrees north, and from 30 degrees west longitude to the Bermudas, and even further west, so that we are about in the middle of it now. Almost the entire portion of this space of the ocean is covered by a peculiar species of sea-weed, termed by botanists the 'fucus natans,' which is found nowhere else in any great abundance except in the Gulf Stream, which, skirting along the edge of the Sargasso Sea, bears away portions of the floating substance in its progress from the Gulf of Florida eastwards. The western current to the south of this region also sometimes detaches masses of the weed; but its main habitat is the Sargasso Sea, where, there being no eddies or streams either way and little or no wind generally, the sargassum accumulates in great masses, presenting frequently the aspect of an immense marine meadow."

"I think, sir," I interposed at this point, "I read once in the Life of Columbus, that, when on his first voyage beyond seas from Spain, his sailors almost mutinied and wanted him to put back on account of their fancying they could never pass through the weed?"

"They did," replied Mr Marline. "The men thought Columbus had sold his soul to the spirits of evil, and that they were in an enchanted sea, but the brave old Genoese navigator surmounted their fears in the end! I can better, perhaps, explain, Tom, the reason for the weed accumulating so hereabouts, by likening, as Maury did, the Atlantic Ocean to a basin. Now, if you put a few small pieces of cork or any other light substance into a basin, and move your hand round it so as to give the water it contains a circular motion, the bits of cork will be found to float to the centre and remain there. Well, here, the Gulf Stream is the circular motion of our great basin, while the Sargasso Sea is the centre, and it is in consequence of the continual current circling round it that the weed stops there in such quantities—as you will see most likely in a day or two, when the ocean gets rested after the great storm we have had, which has somewhat put things out of their proper trim."

"And does the weed grow to the bottom?" I asked.

"Bottom? Why, there are no soundings here under four miles, and it would take a pretty long root to stretch to such a depth! No, the sargasso weed floats and lives on the surface. When examined closely, it is found to have an oblong narrow serrated leaf of a pale yellow colour, resembling somewhat in form a cauliflower stripped of its leaves, the nodules being composed of a vast number of small branches, about half an inch long, which shoot out from each other at a sharp angle, and hence multiply continually towards the outer circumference of the plant, each extreme point producing a round seed-vessel like a berry. A great number of little crabs, barnacles, and small shell-fish are generally found attached to the weed, as Captain Miles mentioned just now when he said we might find something to eat amidst the branches of it in an emergency. It is wonderful sometimes to see with what regularity the weed is arranged across the ocean when the wind blows. It looks then exactly like a meadow does after it has been fresh mown and the grass is left upon it in long swathes by the scythe at equal distances apart."

"There, Master Tom," put in Captain Miles here, "I think you know now all that Mr Marline can tell you about the Sargasso Sea and the weed to be found there. It's about time we all turned in now for the night, for the sun has set and it will soon be dark. Have all you men," he called out aloud, "lashed yourselves securely?"

"Aye, aye, sir," they answered one by one, Moggridge coming last.

"Then good night, and good cheer, my lads!" he cried. "Keep your peckers up, and to-morrow morning. I daresay, we'll see our way out of this predicament. I don't think it is going to blow any more, so you may compose yourselves to rest as cosily, my lads, as if you were in your bunks here, without fear of anything much troubling you, for the sharks can't harm you!"

The sun had set by this time and the evening grew gradually dark, for there was no moon, as the heavens were overcast; but still, the wind did not get up again, and the motion of the ship being easy enough we lay along the side of the ship very comfortably, most of the men soon falling asleep, and I soon following their example.

It must have been towards morning, for a dim sort of light was beginning to be perceptible in the east, we were wakened up by a terrible yell.

A moment afterwards a heavy splash sounded in the water alongside.

"Good heavens! what is that?" cried Captain Miles, starting up and trying to peer through the darkness, so as to see who was missing. "Anyone gone overboard?"

"Yes, sir," answered Jackson's voice presently, as if he had waited to reconnoitre, "it is one of the German sailors, poor Hermann. He has probably slipped his lashings and slid down the side. I'm afraid the sharks have taken him, for he has never called out once!"

"Poor fellow!" exclaimed the captain, raising a hail.

"Hi, hullo!"

But, there came no response; and so, Jackson's surmise must have been correct. The man had evidently fallen in his sleep, through the slipping of the rope which had secured him to the rigging; and he must either have been drowned at once or fallen a victim to the maw of one of the sharks, whose movements we could hear in the water still below us.

The accident, however, wakened us all up thoroughly, and we waited anxiously for daylight.

When this came, however, a terrible scene was enacted before our eyes.

No sooner had the rising sun lit up the ocean and enabled us all to see each other distinctly, than I noticed Davis, who was close to Jackson, staring at him in a most peculiar manner.

I never saw in anyone before such a fixed steady glare!

The man seemed out of his senses or bewildered by something, for his eyes moved about strangely, although with a savage gleam in them, while his hair appeared to bristle up.

"Well, what is the matter?" said Jackson at length, after enduring his gaze for a moment or two, waiting for the other to speak. "Do you want water? Shall I get you some?"

This apparently broke the spell which was upon the wretched man, whose constitution had been much enfeebled by his drinking habits making him thus less able to contend against the exposure and privations we had been subjected to than the rest of us.

The minute Jackson spoke, he uttered a queer sort of half-groan, half- shriek; and having previously, I suppose, untied the rope with which he had been lashed to the rigging, he made a dash at the second mate with both his hands, trying to grip his throat and strangle him.

"You devil!" he cried, foaming at the mouth with passion, "you've taken my place and brought me to this."

Jackson easily repulsed his struggles to do him any injury; but, before he and the other sailors could secure the madman, he sprang to his feet and, shouting out something which we could not distinguish, jumped right down among the group of sharks that were still swimming about under the stern.

There was a heavy plunge, followed by a wild scurrying to and fro in the water of the moving fins; and, a moment after, when the sea had got still again, a circle of blood on the surface alone told of the unhappy man's fate.

The incident saddened us all very much, taking away our hopeful thoughts and courage alike; so we waited on listlessly for what we now believed must shortly be our own doom, not a soul speaking a word or even looking at his neighbour for some time afterwards.

Jackson was the first to recover himself.

The sight of the cruel sharks under the ship's counter and the memory of our two shipmates, whom they had already devoured, appeared to prey on his mind and make him furious.

"I can't stand this any longer," he cried. "I must try and kill one of these brutes, captain, or die in the attempt!"

Captain Miles thought he had gone out of his senses too and spoke soothingly to him; but Jackson soon showed that if he had become insane there was a method in his madness.

Rising on his feet, he walked on the top of the bulwarks to the main- shrouds, and clambering out on his hands and knees along these, made his way to where a long wooden handspike, that had been used for heaving round the windlass, was floating under the rigging.

Picking up this and cutting off a good length of the topsail halliards, he came back to where we all were, and proceeded to make a running noose at the end of the rope.

"What are you going to do?" asked Captain Miles, not quite certain yet of Jackson's sanity.

"I'm going to try to get one of the sharks to come close enough to give him a taste of this handspike," said the stalwart young fellow, drawing himself up to his full height, and looking round with a determined expression on his face that I had never seen there before. "If I can only get them all to come to the inside of the ship, I shall do for one or two, I know."

"Golly, Massa Jackson, me help you wid um knife," exclaimed Jake, entering with much animation in the other's project. "S'pose we fiss for um wid sumfin', so as make um swim roun' t'oder side ob ship, hey?"

"That's a good idea," said Captain Miles, and he offered Jake his hat to use as a bait, but the darkey shook his head at this.

"No, tankee, Mass' Cap'en, I'se got sumfin' better nor dat," he exclaimed, pulling off the guernsey with which he had sheltered me the first night we were exposed on the wreck. "Dis do ebber so much betterer. Shark smell um, an' tink he hab dis niggah, yah, yah!"

As he laughed, he tied one end of a bit of the signal halliards, which he had used to lash himself to the rigging, to the guernsey, lowering it down to a short distance above the surface of the water, where he kept it dangling.

One of the sharks rose towards it, another coming up soon after in its train; and then Jake kept continually shifting the rope round that portion of the taffrail of the poop which was above the sea, the sharks following in chase of the deceptive bait until he had lured them round to the inside part of the ship to join the one who was still on sentry there.

This was just what Jackson wanted; so he now proceeded to climb out along the mizzen rigging until he reached the point where the sea lapped it, when he arranged his running noose underneath, tying the loose end of the rope to the shrouds in a double hitch.

Jake then manoeuvred the baited line nearer to where the second mate had stationed himself, climbing out into the mizzen rigging too; when, as the leading shark turned over on its back and bit at the guernsey, Jackson slipped the running knot over its tail, pulling the noose in so that it held tightly. Then, seizing the handspike, he began belabouring the monster in a way that must pretty well have astonished its weak nerves, Jake the while stabbing it in the tail-end of the body with his long-bladed knife.

There was a terrific scuffle in which the water was tossed high in the air; but, after a minute or two, the shark broke the rope and managed to get away, although it was so seriously injured that it still remained on its back, and a quantity of blood poured out from the wounds it had received.

This made the crippled animal's comrades set upon it, tearing it to pieces between them; and, while they were gorging themselves with the dissevered carcass, Jake dived into the sea under the fierce creatures, stabbing them wherever he could with such effect that his onslaught frightened the whole lot away—not a shark being visible in the vicinity within a few minutes after the commencement of the fray!

"Jerryboosalum!" exclaimed Jake, when, presently, he emerged all dripping and triumphant from the blood-stained waters. "We pay out dem debbels for ebberybody now. You nebber see dem come back hyar agin, I'se bet."

Nor did we.

There was no doubt of the rapacious brutes having been finally scared away.

"You're a couple of brave fellows," cried Captain Miles when the two avengers climbed back in again on to the poop bulwarks, after thus carrying the war into Egypt, routing the foes that had kept us so long prisoners, and prevented us from doing anything towards righting the ship. "Now, I think, we can make another attempt to find that axe of the carpenter's in the fo'c's'le, if you are not too tired, Jake, to go in after it again?"

"Bress you, no, Mass' Captain, me no tire' at all! Me get axe in brace ob shakes, if um dar," answered the willing fellow, laughing and showing his shining ivory teeth as he opened his mouth from ear to ear; and, almost as soon as he had uttered the words, he ran along the bulwarks towards the fore part of the ship, scrambled out into the main rigging, and dived into the sea immediately over the opening into the forecastle, at the same spot where he had previously gone down.

Once, twice, he came up to the surface again to take breath after a lengthened stay under the water; but, each time he rose with empty hands.

A third time he reappeared, still unsuccessful; and then we began to give up hope, although watching him all the while with the most intense anxiety.

None spoke a word, hardly daring to move.

Our interest in his actions was keen to intensity!

Our fate seemed trembling in the balance.

Once more he dived.

This was the fourth time he had ventured beneath the sea in his search for the coveted weapon, which was to free the ship from the cumbersome masts and top-hamper that kept her down on her beam-ends.

Unless we got the axe we would never be able to right her again; and we all regarded this dive of Jake's as the last chance, although we did not exchange a syllable—our looks expressed our thoughts.

Jake now remained longer below than he had yet done, so we feared some mishap had befallen him; but, just as Jackson was preparing to dive down into the water that covered the forecastle, to see what had become of him, the plucky darkey popped up above the surface, holding something in one hand as he swam with the other towards the main rigging.

Our hearts beat high with expectation.

In another minute, Jake had mounted into the shrouds, when our suspense was quickly relieved; for, no sooner had he clambered near enough to the ship's side to get a support for his feet, than he raised himself erect.

"Golly, Mass' Cap'en," he sang out in feeble accents, being now pretty well exhausted with his repeated efforts, "I'se got him at last! I'se got him at last!"

At the same time, he lifted up whatever it was he held in his hand, and tried to wave it round his head in token of his victory.

It was Adze's axe.

"Hooray!" shouted Captain Miles at the extreme pitch of his voice, and the responsive cheer we raised in chorus might have been heard more than a mile away.



CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

RIGHTING THE SHIP.

"Now, men!" cried out Captain Miles, when our excitement had calmed down a little, "we've got the axe; but, the next thing we have to do is to use it, so as to release the ship as soon as we can. I think, my lads, I ought to have the first turn."

So saying, taking the axe from Jake, he made a slash at the end of the hawser which had been rigged up over the head of the foremast, when, the strands being cut through after a couple of heavy strokes, the rope parted, curling up like a whip and flying up in the air with a pretty sharp report.

"Now, Mr Marline, it's your turn," said the captain, having thus set an example in commencing the work; and then, the first mate, nothing loth, attacked the main-shrouds, severing them clear to the chain-plates, when he handed over the axe to Jackson, who also did wonders with the weapon towards clearing away the heavy rigging that had so long resisted the efforts of the men with their clasp-knives.

The sea by this time was quite calm, thus greatly facilitating our labour; but, from our not having had any food for two days, all hands were very weak, and it took them a much longer time to free the ship of all her rope hamper and cordage than they would have achieved the task in if they had possessed their proper strength. It was, therefore, quite late on in the afternoon when the rigging on the port side was all detached, although Jake had recovered the axe at noon, and we had set to work immediately afterwards.

This, however, was only a preliminary to the real labour that lay before us—that of cutting away the masts, a much more serious matter.

The ship, it must be recollected, was lying completely over on her starboard side, with all her spars extended horizontally flat along the surface of the sea, which washed up to the hatches; so that, even amidships, the water was too deep for the men to have stood on the deck, even if they could have found foothold; there. Away ahead, the bows were completely submerged right up to the fore-chains, the ocean swell washing right through the Josephine fore and aft, right up to the poop.

Luckily, however, the upper portion of the mainmast bitts projected out of the water, so, Jackson, climbing down on to these and supporting himself as well as he could by balancing his body with his feet extended outwards straddle-ways, commenced to slash away at the mast here; while the rest of the men, under Mr Marline's directions, proceeded to clear away the rigging and unreeve those ropes which they were able to reach, in order to leave the spar clear for Jackson to work upon it freely.

It was a terribly tough job, though, the young seaman having to waste a part of each blow in the water that covered the foot of the mast. This neutralised his efforts, but he could not help it, for the axe splashed in the sea before touching the wood.

After a short spell, Jackson, quite feeble from hunger and exhaustion, had to give in, when Moggridge took his place, chopping vigorously at the mast as long as he was able. Then, another sailor took a turn at it, and so on, until each had had his go; when Jackson, rested a bit and refreshed by a long drink of water, began anew, making the chips of the hard wood fly as well as the sea, which he splashed up at every stroke the spray going into his eyes and almost blinding him.

All the men worked with the greatest perseverance in spite of their weak state; and, just before sunset, when the mast was about half cut through, it gave signs of at length yielding, sundry sharp cracks being heard as its natural buoyancy forced it to rise, the different purchases that previously held it to the deck being also now severed.

"Bravo, men, one spell more all round, and we'll have the spar loose!" cried Captain Miles, going down into the waist himself to head this last attack, and taking a longer turn with the axe than anyone.

Blow after blow was then rained upon the heel of the mast, all working with fresh courage and determination as the ponderous piece of timber gave way before their efforts, a wide gaping hole having been now made in it by the axe.

"Look out and stand clear!" shouted Jackson, catching on to the same old sling he had rove out of the topsail halliards by which he had lowered himself from the bulwarks, and swinging himself out of danger. "It's coming at last!"

At the same moment, a scrunching, wrenching sound was heard, followed by a long, loud crack; and then, up floated the mainmast cut off close to the deck, although still attached to the ship by the rigging on the starboard side—which could not be reached, of course, at present, being under water, and the sea covering it to the depth of ten or twelve feet.

The effect of this relief to the ship was at once apparent, the forward portion of the wreck sensibly rising out of the sea, and the top of the forecastle being now visible, as well as the whole of the port bulwarks up to the cat-head on that side; while the main-deck below us, and the upper portion of the poop, became slanting at an angle towards the water on the starboard, instead of being almost perpendicular to it as before, thus showing that the centre of gravity was changed and the vessel recovering her stability.

"Bravo, men!" exclaimed Captain Miles joyously, delighted at such confirmatory proofs that his hopes of righting the Josephine were not unduly sanguine. "As soon as we get the foremast clear she'll come up all standing, never fear! Can't you see how the poor thing is trying hard to free herself now?"

As the portion of the floating mast that was inboard now rose out of the water as far as the main-top, a party of the men with Moggridge scrambled on to it and began cutting away the various cross ropes, halliards, clew-lines, and so on, that held it to the fore and mizzen spars. The yards had now floated too, although the upper portion of the mainmast bearing their weight, as it slewed over, pressed on the starboard bulwarks, remaining in that position from the calmness of the sea, which had not motion enough to drift it away.

"If only a slight breeze would spring up now, so as to rouse a little more swell, we'd float clear of this wreck," observed Mr Marline. "Half the weight of the mast still tends to keep the ship down to leeward."

"Ah, we don't want it rough yet," said the captain. "The foremast is the main thing to get rid of now; and, unless the sea keeps still, we'll never manage to cut that away, for it is still more under water than the mainmast was."

"I forgot that," replied the mate; and then, both went along the bulwarks forwards to where Jackson was beginning operations at the other spar.

If the mainmast had proved stubborn and unyielding, this was twenty times more so, the great difficulty being that there was no vantage- ground to be had, in the shape of a firm footing, from whence to ply the axe.

"It's no use, sir," said Jackson, when the captain had come abreast of the spot where he was standing, in the fore-rigging, trying vainly to reach the mast below. "I can't even touch the timber, much less make a blow at it!"

"Well, all that can be done," replied Captain Miles, "is to lighten it as much as possible. Cut away what rigging you are able to lay hands on, and if the sea gets up in the night it may work free."

"All right, sir," said Jackson; so, he and the gang with him went to work with a will, slashing here and there at the cordage connecting the mast with the port side of the ship.

Meanwhile, Jake had been very busy, proving himself quite as useful as the rest.

Swimming like a fish he had gone into the sea near the wreck of the mainmast; and, with that long knife of his, which had done so much damage to the sharks, he began cutting away the fastenings of the topgallant-yard, although leaving the lee-braces intact, so that the spar could be hauled in by and by.

Moggridge was on the mast, too, and, with his gang of men, was operating on the tressel-trees to free the lower yard; so that, before it was dark, the whole stick of the mainmast was nearly clear. Only the shrouds and stays on the starboard side now held it to the hull; and, consequently, when it felt inclined to shift its position athwart ship it could easily do so.

Jackson, and those with him forward, having now done as much as they could to cast-off the foremast gear, Captain Miles hailed them to come aft.

"I think," said he, "if we can only contrive to cut away the mizzen, and a breeze springs up, as there seems every prospect of from these clouds to windward, then, through the greater buoyancy now possessed by the ship amidships and astern, the foremast will go of its own accord. At all events, we can try it; for, as you say, there isn't any chance of our getting rid of it by any unaided efforts of our own."

The lighter spars that Jake and Moggridge had detached were now hauled in and made into a sort of raft, upon which Jackson and the whole lot of the crew clambered, proceeding to attack the mizzen-mast, the lower part of which spar was just out of the water.

Slash, bang went the axe with a will, wielded by hands nerved with all the strength of desperation, each man cutting away as long as he could, and then another hand taking his turn. Even I was busy with a knife, sawing away at the thick ropes, and doing what I could to help the others.

The mizzen, being of considerably less diameter than the mainmast, took a much less time to conquer; so, soon it gave way with a splintering crash, the jagged heel floating up in the same way as the other, and working about freely as the rigging was severed so that it could easily pass overboard.

"Now, men, we may cry a spell," said Captain Miles when the task was accomplished. "Nothing more can be done now. We must wait for a breeze to clear away the wreck, when, I've no doubt, the ship will right again."

"I'm sure I hope so, dear captain!" said I fervently. "Do you think she really will?"

"Not a doubt of it, my boy," he answered. "She would have never come up so far if she had meant to stop on her beam-ends. See, now! Why, I can almost stand up here on the poop, the deck has risen so much already. By the morning, I hope she'll be right end uppermost again."

"But, how about our lodging for the night?" suggested Mr Marline. "If we lie along the bulwarks, in the same way as before, and the ship rights suddenly in the night, we'll be all thrown in the water."

"I have thought of that," said Captain Miles. "We'll brace up this raft of spars here close in under the bulwarks inboard, and then we'll be on the safe side of the hedge if she comes up while we're napping! Let us have another drink of water now, Jackson, my lad, and turn in for the night, for I've no doubt you're all pretty tired. I'm sorry I can't pipe down to supper."

"You are not more sorry than I am," put in Mr Marline drily. "I could eat with the greatest gusto the skeleton of my grandmother's cat now!"

This speech of his had the very effect he wished of making the men laugh at their privation. Judging by my own feelings, they must have felt terribly hungry and empty; for, instead of two days, it seemed two years since I had tasted food.

I was fairly famishing!

There was no chance yet, however, of our getting anything to eat; so, in accordance with Captain Miles's directions, preparations were now made for our accommodation during the night, as the evening was beginning to close in and darkness to settle down on the face of the deep, veiling the waste of waters from the gaze of us poor shipwrecked fellows.

The loose spars detached from the masts were hauled up lengthwise along the bulwarks on the inner side of the poop, where they were lashed securely so as to form a sort of shelf; and, on this, all hands now settled themselves as comfortably as they could—Captain Miles with Mr Marline and myself being on the after part of the structure, while Jackson with the others bunked down nearer the break of the poop; but, each man was separately tied, for greater precaution, in case of the sea getting up again and the waves breaking over the vessel.

While we had been moving about exerting ourselves, the sense of hunger had not been so apparent, although all experienced its gnawing pain in a greater or less degree; but now, resting quietly, doing nothing and having to bear all the suspense of waiting for what might turn out possibly to be only an uncertainty on the morrow, the ravenous feeling that assailed us became almost unbearable, several of the men moaning and groaning in their sleep.

As for myself, I know that when I dozed off in fragmentary snatches of sleep I dreamed of all sorts of splendid banquets, with nice dishes such as I had often tasted in the West Indies when dad gave a dinner-party; only to waken up in the still darkness and hear the melancholy wash of the sea surging up against the ship's hull, with the creaking noise the masts made as they surged to and fro on the swell.

Up to midnight, as far as we could tell the time, no breeze came; but, towards morning, a slight wind arose, when the sea became agitated, as we could hear from the sound of it breaking over the hull forwards, the ends of the masts worked to and fro more boisterously, grinding against the starboard bulwarks and tearing the timbers away bit by bit.

"Ah!" I heard Captain Miles say, as if talking to himself, "this is our chance if it only does not get too rough."

The sound of his voice woke up Gottlieb, the remaining German sailor, who was lying near Jake, the latter being next me as usual.

This man had taken the loss of his countryman a good deal to heart. Our hardships, besides, had affected his health; for, all of us noticed how ill he looked during the day when working at clearing away the masts.

"I vas die!" he now exclaimed.

"Dying? Nonsense, my man, not a bit of it," cried Captain Miles. "Keep up your courage, and you'll be worth a hundred dead men yet."

"Ach nein, I vas die, I knows," replied the other, speaking solemnly in deep low tones.

His German accent and mode of speech seemed to come out more strongly now than I had noticed before; and it flashed across my mind how I had once read somewhere that, when a man is at his last, though he may have lived amongst strangers for years and spoken a foreign tongue, he will then naturally go back to the language and thoughts of his own country.

"Shall I get you some water?" asked Jackson, who was also awake and heard what Gottlieb had said.

"Nein—no. I want not water, not nothing," returned the other. "Listen, I've got to tell you sometings before I vas die. I did not speak before for fear to make mischief. You remember my poor frients Hermann?"

"Aye," said Captain Miles, now keenly attentive. "Poor fellow, he fell overboard and got caught by the sharks."

"Dat is what I vant explain," painfully whispered the German, his voice failing him. "Hermann vas not fall overboard. He vas throwed over."

"Thrown over! How—by whom?" exclaimed the captain quite startled.

"He vas throw over by Davis—he one bad man."

"Davis?" cried Captain Miles, all of us eagerly listening.

"Ye-es. Davis, he grab holt of poor Hermann and say, 'ah, you rascal, Jackson, I have you now,' and den he pitch him over the side. Poor Hermann, he give one yell, for he vas sleep and not awaken yet, and den dere vas a splash and de sharks swallow him up!"

"Good heavens, man!" cried Captain Miles, "why did you not tell us of this before?"

"I vas afraid, and de man is now dead too; so I did not speak," answered the other slowly.

"Yes, he's dead and gone to his account! I suppose we need not talk about him any more," said the captain, deeply moved, adding a minute after, as if unable to keep his emotion to himself, "But, he was a scoundrel! I say, Jackson, you had a lucky escape from him last night!"

"Thank God, sir, yes," replied the young seaman. "He took a grudge to me from the first, before ever you promoted me, and that, of course, made him hate me afterwards more than ever. I did not think, though, he would have tried to take my life. I suppose that was the reason he looked so very strangely when he tried to clutch me before he jumped into the sea?"

"Not a doubt of it," said Mr Marline. "He seemed thunderstruck, I know, for I particularly noticed his look. He must have been surprised at seeing you there alive, when he thought he had already settled you for good and all!"

"Well, he has met his own punishment," answered Jackson; "and I do not bear him any ill-will now—or ever did for that matter. Let him rest."

"Aye," said Captain Miles; "but, how's Gottlieb going on—are you better, my man?"

But, there was no answer to the captain's question; and Jackson, bending over the German sailor, found his heart had ceased to beat, his body already becoming cold.

"Golly, Mass' Cap'en," called out Jake, "him 'peak de trute dat time, suah, him dead as door-nail!"

This news made everyone silent, each man thinking how soon his own time might come; and we anxiously awaited the morning.

During the sad episode that had occurred the wind had risen, beginning to blow pretty strongly from the westwards. The sea, too, had got up, for short choppy waves were dashing against the stern of the ship and throwing their broken wash over us. This made our situation less comfortable than it had been previously, our worn-out bodies and hunger- stricken frames not being able to stand the exposure so well now as at first.

The masts, also, were grinding against the bulwarks and making a horrible din, the crunching of the timber work and splintering noise of the planks almost deadening the noise of the sea and preventing us from hearing each other speak. Not that we felt much inclined for conversation, answering for myself; for, I was chilled to the bone from the cool evening air penetrating my wet clothes, which got more and more saturated as the waves came over the poop, while I was faint with hunger and exhausted from want of sleep.

Thus the weary night passed, the sky being clouded over so that even the lights of heaven could not shine down to cheer us up; and, to add to the bitterness of our unhappy plight, our hearts were full of the untimely end of poor Gottlieb, the German sailor who had passed away so suddenly from amongst us, and the shocking disclosure he had made just before his tired spirit sought eternal rest, of the treachery of Davis—whose terrible fate, in front of our very eyes, seemed a just judgment for his murder of Hermann and foiled vengeance on Jackson, the latter of whom had evidently only escaped with his life through the wretched man's mistake.

At last, when it seemed as if we could hold out no longer, a faint gleam appeared in the east lighting up the horizon, and morning dawned gloomily upon us; but, a heavy mist hung over the sea and it took the rays of the rising sun a long time to pierce through this, albeit there was light enough for us to survey the scene around.

The ocean now, instead of rising and falling with the sullen swell that had given motion to it the day before, was covered with short broken waves that rolled up from the westwards with the wind, dashing against the partly-submerged vessel and throwing clouds of spray over those portions of the hull above the surface of the water, a large share of which we also came in for.

This motion of the sea, we could perceive, had considerably altered the position of the masts that had been cut away, for they were rolling over and grinding down the starboard bulwarks, the inboard ends working themselves gradually fore and aft the ship, the lee side of which had risen quite a couple of feet higher out of the water during the night.

"Another good wave or two will send all that hamper adrift," said Captain Miles, looking round and calculating our chances.

"Yes," replied Mr Marline, "they are coming from the right direction too, for if they broke over us abeam, then the foremast could not free itself. Now it possibly may, from the leverage it has against the fo'c's'le."

"You're right," said the captain; "and here comes a good-sized roller that may finish the job. Look out, lads, and hold on!"

Onward, as we gazed astern, came a large green sea, with a white angry crest, swelling larger and larger as it got nearer, until it almost hung above the poop before breaking.

"Hold on, lads, hold on!" cried the captain, repeating his previous warning, when, with a dull thud the mass of water broke, covering us all with a sheet of foam that drenched us through and through, almost swept us away from our lashings—the spars that supported us being lifted up from the deck and then dropped again as suddenly.

At the same time, there was a heavy crash heard forward, and the ship lurched as if she were going to founder. She quivered all over, and her timbers creaked and groaned.