A NIGHT'S PERIL. 137 



death by drowning seemed so certain, and so immedi- 

 ately imminent, that no room remained for remoter 

 apprehensions. 



For one moment, I believe, we both lost our self- 

 possession. Hamilton was alarmed at the heeling 

 over, and at the noise, but when the boat righted he 

 seemed to think all the danger was over. My blank 

 look, however, somewhat alarmed him, and he did 

 not quite understand why it was that we were sailing 

 off-shore at such a rate. " Halloa," said he, " what 

 makes you look so grave 1 A miss is as good as a 

 mile. "We're all right now, ain't we ? " I did not 

 answer him in words ; but leaving him to gather in- 

 telligence from my looks, I ran to the tiller to see 

 whether there remained any hope of getting her 

 sufficiently near to the wind to enable us to fetch 

 any part of the coast. 



The attempt was but a forlorn hope. I might just 

 as well have tried to sail her in the wind's eye. I 

 could not " bring her to " in the least, but she went 

 tearing on right before the wind. " Hamilton," I 

 said, " we are in a bad way. She cannot beat against 

 this gale under her jib, and you know that we have 

 not a stitch of spare canvas." 



Strange as it may seem, he did not seem at first to 

 catch the idea of the danger we really were in. He 

 had so accustomed himself to think of one kind of 

 peril only, that he could see nothing alarming in our 

 state so long as we carried on under easy canvas. 



