Page:Paine--Lost ships and lonely seas.djvu/66

40 to drink. At bedtime the captain read aloud selections from the Rev. Mr. Brooks's Family Prayer-Book, and they slept in the sand when the scorpions, centipedes, lizards, and mosquitoes permitted.

Of driftwood, palmetto logs, and bits of board they fashioned a little raft and so explored the key nearest them. There they discovered some shooks, planks, and pieces of spar which had been in the Exertion's deck-load and were thrown overboard when she grounded on the bar. With the amazing handiness of good seamen they proceeded to build a boat of this pitiful material. "Some of the Spaniards had secreted their long knives in their trouser-legs, which proved very useful in fitting timbers, and a gimblet of mine enabled us to use wooden pins," explains Captain Lincoln. "And now our spirits began to revive, although water, water was continually in our minds. Our labor was extremely burdensome, and the Spaniards considerably peevish, but they would often say to me, 'Never mind. Captain, bye-and-bye Americans or Spanish catch 'em and we go see 'em hung.’"

David Warren, the cook of the Exertion, had been ailing, and the cruel ordeal of being marooned was too much for him. The captain perceived that he was soon to leave them and suggested, as they sat by the fire: