rope. I knew they would not take to this
boat while the vessel floated, and I hoped
that no one would think of disturbing the
ropes.

"For four days I took the share of the
rations which the Captain distributed to us
all. The physician's wife, who was in ill-
health, died, and was cast into the sea. This
left us fifteen persons. The old Frenchman
was also in weak health; but he held
out, and his companion tended him
constantly. Everybody took interest in them,
wretched as they were, and it was a fine
thing to see her bravery and constant care
for her charge. I remember looking at
them, and thinking that if there were no more
than they, I would gladly give them a
portion of my store; although, perhaps, I was
then too selfish for that, and only flattered
myself with the thought. I did not dare
myself to go to the boat until the first dark
night, when I pulled off my boots, and,
groping along, found my box, and stealthily
ate a portion of its contents; eating,
however, in great fear, lest my secret should be
discovered; in which case I knew my
famished comrades would have killed me for
my selfishness. I knew I could have relieved
them to some degree; but I did not stir. I
heard their murmurs, but I held my tongue;
all which I justified to myself; for what,
thought I, would be my little hoard amongst
all these? Better that one should live, than
that all should eat, merely to live another
day.

"Soon after this our case became dismal
indeed. The ship sunk deeper, and even the
after-deck became gradually immersed, so
we all took refuge in the tops and rigging,
where we lashed ourselves; and all day
long, as shipwrecked men will do, reported
a strange sail. As to my box, I had managed
to fold its contents in a large sail-cloth
which I carried with me, and of which we
all had plenty. And now, seeing my
companions' weakness I took the devilish idea of
feigning weakness equal to theirs, lest otherwise
some suspicion might arise against me.

"I had lashed myself in the mainshrouds,
having made a better place for myself with
a swinging board and an old coat. Immediately
above me in the maintop were the
Frenchman and his niece; but most of the
crew were in the mizenshrouds and top. I
used to look up and exchange a few words
with the Frenchman and his charge. They
were better sheltered than I was, and the
girl, who was of a cheerful temper, bore up
well. We threw no more bodies in the sea,
but several were dead, as I knew by the
drooping of their heads, they being lashed to
their places. One man, who had untied
himself accidentally, fell with a splash in the
deep water on the mid-deck, and no one
offered to descend, or even spoke. There
now began a dreadful silence among us, so
that I began to doubt if many lived save I,
the Frenchman and his niece, and an old
sailor who was on one of the mizen yards.
This man, whose name was Ephraim, sat
drooping, and apparently very dejected, for
several days; but one day looking towards
him, soon after daybreak, I found his eyes
fixed upon me in a manner that perplexed
me. He was a man of a hideous cast of
countenance, his face being furrowed with
scars, as if it had been at some time burnt
with gunpowder, and his upper lip being slit
in a way that showed all his front teeth even
when his mouth was closed. He had a low
forehead, and long black hair like a Malay,
and he regarded me with a scowl that at
such a time would have terrified the bravest.
I could not see him unless I turned towards
him, but at first a curiosity, and finally an
impulse which I could not control, compelled
me to meet his eyes. For, when I did not look
I felt them upon me— nay, even at night
when I could see him no more, I felt that he
was still looking towards me, and bending
forward as if striving to discern my figure in
the gloom. Sometimes he regarded me with
a grimace which was at once ludicrous and
terrible; but he spoke no word, only uttering
now and then a dismal cry, not like the
sound of any human voice.

"All this so fretted me in my weakness
and depression, and so filled me with a kind
of shame, that I sat one night in my place
and omitted to creep down to my box. When
day dawned, it was a relief to me to find our
ship enveloped in a mist; and just at that
time I heard a moan either from the Frenchman
or his niece in the tops. Touched with
a sudden pity, which in my selfishness and
fear I had not known until then, I crept up
the shrouds to where they lay, and there
found what might have moved a stonier
heart. The man lay back against the mast
quite cold, but his companion, who had been
enveloped in a cloak and heap of sail-cloth,
evidently by his hand, was living still. It
was her moans that I had heard. She could
not have eaten anything for some days, nor
had they had any water for a longer time,
save a few drops of rain which they might
have collected in the sail-cloth. I turned
and crept down again to my box where I
had still some biscuits, a piece of raw pork,
some grocer's plums, a bottle containing in
the bottom a little rum, and another small
bottle of water. With some drops of the
spirit and water mingled in the palm of my
hand I wetted her lips, and alter a while
revived her a little, though still insensible— a
happy thing. For finding the Frenchman
quite dead, I moved his body to the edge of
the top, and then let it down into the sea,
which now covered the mid-deck above the
bulwarks.

"She remained in this weak half-senseless
state for some days, during which the mist
continued, and shrouded me from the terrible
gaze of old Ephraim; but I heard him still.