Page:The Land of Wonders - O Conaire.pdf/30

 24 send her away. His brow would become furrowed and chin and nose almost met.

On the thirty-third day after leaving Galway the wind dropped and the sails hung idly by the masts. A dead calm prevailed and the sea around them was as smooth as a board. The reflection of the birds overhead could be seen in the water. The sky was cloudless and the big yellow sun beat down on them from early morning.

A week passed. The sun rose and it almost split the planks during the day. It set and the stars came out and were visible glittering and dancing in the depths of the sea. It seemed that one had only to put one's hand into the water to pick up a hundred of them. In the course of the week there was not a single cloud in the sky, nor a breath of wind from any quarter.

The white sails still hung idle. One day a large bird alighted on a corner of the mainsail and his feet went through it as it had rotted from the heat. The planks of the ship began to split with the heat, and when salt water was thrown on them it would dry up in five minutes and leave a white sediment of salt.

Food began to be scarce and the drinking water was almost exhausted. The Captain had to restrict each man to a pint a day, and were it not for the dew that fell during the night they would have died from thirst. Every morning