“I can easily do that, Bob. First, I got well because you took care of me.”
“What! I?”
“Yes, you! At the commencement of your madness you tended me and cared for me as if you had been my mother. When you got to lose all ‘method in your madness’ I was well enough to take care of myself and you too. Secondly, I found this wooden leg in the carpenter’s berth, and gladly availed myself of its services, though it is three inches too short, and causes me to hobble in a most undignified manner. Thirdly, we are here alone because there is no one else with us. You took good care of that by cutting the ropes before any of our crew could get aboard—so you told me just before you went mad.”
“Oh! I remember now! I recollect it all. Go on.”
“Fourthly, as to where we are going, I don’t know. Our compass was smashed to pieces in the fight, and I’ve been running for the last three weeks right before the wind. So now you know all, and as you’ve finished your soup I’ll go and get you a lump of boiled junk.”
“Don’t,” said I, rising and shaking myself. “I’ve dined. I feel quite strong. I don’t feel a bit as if I had been ill. Hallo! what land is that?”
Jack started and gazed at it with surprise. He had evidently not known that we were in the neighbourhood of land. A dense fog-bank had concealed it from us. Now that it cleared away it revealed to our gaze a stretch of yellow sand, backed by the lofty blue hills of the interior, and from the palm-trees that I could make out distinctly I judged that we must have been making for the tropical regions during the last three weeks.
Yet here again mystery surrounded me. How was it possible that we should have reached the tropics in so short a time? While I was puzzling over this question, the greatest mystery of all occurred to us. If I were not conscientiously relating events exactly as they occurred, I should expect my readers to doubt my veracity here.
As we were sailing smoothly along, our ship, without any apparent cause, began to sink. She went down gradually, but quickly—inch by inch—until the water was on a level with the decks. We struck no rock! we did not cease to advance towards the shore! I fancied that we must certainly have sprung a leak; but there had been no sound of a plank starting, and there was no noise of water rushing into the hold. I could not imagine what had occurred, but I had not much time for thought. We could do nothing to avert the catastrophe. It occurred so suddenly that we were both rendered mute and helpless. We stood gazing at the water as it crept over the deck without making the slightest effort to save ourselves.
At length the water reached the hatchway and poured in a roaring cataract into the hold. The vessel filled, gave a heavy lurch to port, a species of tremor passed through her frame as if she was