Stories by English Authors: the Sea | Page 9

My dreams always wound up
with imaginations of babbling drinks, and then I'd wake with the froth
upon my lips. However, I got some ease by leaving my handkerchief to
soak in the dew and then sucking it.
Several times during the night I had got on to the upper poop--the deck
above the poop anciently termed the poop-royal--and looked around me.
But there was nothing to see, not a shadow to catch the eye. The breeze
freshened somewhat about midnight, and the air was made pleasant by
the musical noises of running waters. I fell asleep an hour before dawn,
and when I awoke the early ashen line was brightening in the east. The

birth of the day is rapid in those parallels, and the light of the morning
was soon all over sea and sky. I turned to search the ocean, and the first
thing I saw was a brig not above half a mile from the island. She had
studding sails set, and was going north, creeping along before the
breeze. The instant I saw her I rushed on to the poop, where my figure
would be best seen, and fell to flourishing my handkerchief like a
maniac. I sought to shout, but my voice was even weaker than it had
been after I fell overboard. I have no power to describe my feelings
while I waited to see what the brig would do. I cursed myself for not
having kept a lookout, so that I might have had plenty of time to signal
to her as she approached. If she abandoned me I knew I must perish, as
every instant assured me that I had neither mental nor physical power
to undergo another day and night without drink and without hope upon
the island.
On a sudden she hauled up the lee clew of her mainsail, boom-ended
her studding sails, and put her helm over. I knew what this signified,
and, clasping my hands, I looked up to God.
Presently a boat was lowered and pulled toward the island. I dropped
over the side, tumbling down upon my nose in my weakness, and made
with trembling legs to the beach, standing, in my eagerness, in the very
curl of the wash there. There were three men in the boat, and they eyed
me, as they rowed, over their shoulders as if I had been a spectre.
"Who are you, mate, and what country is this?" exclaimed the man who
pulled stroke, standing up to stretch his hand to me.
I pointed to my throat, and gasped, "Water!" I could barely articulate.
Nothing in this wide world moves sailors like a cry to them for water.
In an instant the three men had dragged me into the boat, and were
straining like horses at their oars, as they sent the boat flashing through
the rippling water. We dashed alongside.
"He's dying of thirst!" was the cry.
I was bundled on deck; the captain ran below, and returned with a small
draught of wine and water.
"Start with that," said he. "You'll be fitter for a longer pull later on."
The drink gave me back my voice; yet for a while I could scarce speak,
for the tears that swelled my heart.
"Are there any more of ye?" said the captain.
I answered, "No."

"But what land's this?" he inquired.
"An island uphove by an earthquake," said I.
"Great thunder!" he cried. "And what's that arrangement in shells and
weeds atop of it?"
"A vessel that's probably been three hundred years at the bottom," I
answered.
"The quake rose it, hey?"
"Just as it is," said I.
"Well, boil me," cried the worthy fellow, "if it don't seem too good to
be true! Mr. Fletcher, trim sail, sir. Best shove along--shove along.
Come, sir, step below with me for a rest and a bite, and give me your
tale."
A warily eaten meal with another sup of wine and water made me a
new man. We sat below a long while, I telling my story, he making
notes and talking of the credit he would get for bringing home a report
of a new country, when suddenly the mate put his head into the
skylight.
"Captain!"
"Hillo!"
"The island's gone, sir."
"What d' ye mean? that we've sunk it?"
"No, by the Lord; but that it's sunk itself."
We ran on deck, and where the island should have been was all clear
sea.
The captain stared at the water, with his mouth wide open.
"Nothing to report after all!" he cried.
"I saw it founder!" exclaimed the mate. "I had my eye on it when it
sank. I've seen some foundering in my day; but this beats all my going
a-fishing!"
"Well," said the captain to me, "we didn't come