There were not six feet of surface, nor even three, that could strictly be called horizontal. Even longitudinally, the bottom of the “gully” had a sloping inclination; for the ravine itself tended upwards until it became extinguished in the convergence of its inclosing ridges.
On discovering the unexpected “strait” into which they had launched themselves, our adventurers were for a time nonplussed. They felt inclined to proceed farther in search of a “better bed”, but their weariness outweighed this inclination; and, after some hesitation, they resolved to remain in the “ditch” into which they had so unwillingly descended. They proceeded therefore to encouch themselves.
Their first attempt was made by placing themselves in a half-standing position, their backs supported upon the sloping sides of one of the ridges, with their feet resting against the other. So long as they kept awake, this position was both easy and pleasant; but the moment any one of them closed his eyes in sleep, and this was an event almost instantaneous, his muscles, relaxed by slumber, would no longer have the strength to sustain him; and the consequence would be an uncomfortable collapse to the bottom of the “gully”, where anything like a position of repose was out of the question.
This vexatious interruption of their slumbers happening repeatedly, at length roused all four to take fresh counsel as to choosing a fresh couch.
Terence had been especially annoyed by these repeated disturbances; and proclaimed his determination not to submit to them any longer. He would go in search of more “comfortable quarters.”
He had arisen to his feet, and appeared in the act of starting off.
“We had better not separate,” suggested Harry Blount. “If we do, we may find it difficult to come together again.”
“There’s something in what you say, Hal,” said the young Scotchman. “It will not do for us to lose sight of one another. What does Bill say to it?”
“I say stay here,” put in the voice of the sailor. “It won’t do to stray the wan from the tother. No, it won’t. Let us hold fast, thin, where we’re already belayed.”
“But who the deuce can sleep here?” remonstrated the son of Erin. “A hard-worked horse can sleep standing; and so can an elephant, they say; but, for me, I’d prefer six feet of the horizontal, even if it were a hard stone, to this slope of the softest sand.”