Page:The Iron Pirate 1905.djvu/375

361 one, rule this ocean more sure than any man ruled a people. I say I'd do it; I should have said I could have done it, for it's over now, and the day's gone. Before another twenty-four hours you'll be alone in this dinghy, boy. I've death on me, and I wouldn't live without the ship; no, I'll go under as she went under—the Lord have mercy on me!"

The firmness of the captain was near to leaving him in that moment, but he pulled himself together with a great effort, and sat aft, sculling with the short oar in a mechanical and altogether absent way. The long talk with me about his past had exhausted him, I thought; and he did not seem disposed to speak again. It was then near mid-day, and the sun, being right above us, poured down an intolerable heat, so that the paint of the dinghy was hot to the hand, and we ourselves were consumed with an unquenchable thirst. Nor could I restrain myself, but drank long draughts from the water-kegs, while Black kept to liquor; and was, I saw with fear, rapidly working himself up to a state of intoxication. You may ask if the terrors of the position came home to us thoroughly in that long day when we rode in a bit of a cockle-shell on the sweeping rollers of the Atlantic, but I answer you, I do not think that they did. The fear of such a position is the after-recollection of it. We were in a sense numbed to mental