178 MYSTIC ISLES 



power during the night. We put up our little sail at 

 nine o'clock, though the wind was strong. The skipper 

 said that we could not expect anything but rough 

 weather, and that we had to make the best of every 

 hour, considering what we had to eat and that we were 

 eleven in the boat. The wind was now from the south- 

 west, and we steered northeast. We had to steer with- 

 out compass because it was dark, and we had no light. 



"We had our first bite to eat about noon of this 

 second day out. We had then been nearly three 

 months at sea, or, to be exact, it was seventy-eight days 

 since we had left port. It was thirty hours after the cof- 

 fee and biscuit on the El Dorado, and God knows how 

 much longer since we had had a whole meal, and now we 

 didn't have much. The old man bossed it. He took 

 a half-bucket of fresh water, and into this he put a can 

 of soup. This he served, and gave each man two soda 

 crackers and his share of a pound of corned beef. We 

 dipped the crackers into the bucket. (I tell you it was 

 better than the ham and eggs we had at the hotel when 

 we landed.) We had this kind of a meal twice a day, 

 and no more. 



"The next day the wind was again very strong, with 

 thunder and lightning, and we ran dead before the wind 

 with no more sail than a handkerchief. The sea began 

 to break over the boat, and our old man said that we 

 could not live through it unless we could rig up a sea- 

 anchor. We were sure we would drown. We made 

 one by rolling four blankets together tightly and tying 

 around them a long rope with which our boat was made 

 fast to the ship when we embarked. This we let drag 

 astern about ninety-feet. It held the boat fairly steady, 



