There was not a plank of her that
did not cry aloud for mercy; and as she continued to
hold together, I became conscious of a growing sympathy
with her endeavours, a growing admiration for her
gallant staunchness, that amused and at times
obliterated my terrors for myself God bless every man
that swung a mallet on that tiny and strong hull! It
was not for wages only that he laboured, but to save
men's lives.
All the rest of the day, and all the following night, I
sat in the corner or lay wakeful in my bunk; and it was
only with the return of morning that a new phase of my
alarms drove me once more on deck. A gloomier interval
I never passed. Johnson and Nares steadily relieved
each other at the wheel and came below. The first
glance of each was at the glass, which he repeatedly
knuckled and frowned upon; for it was sagging lower all
the time. Then, if Johnson were the visitor, he would
pick a snack out of the cupboard, and stand, braced
against the table, eating it, and perhaps obliging me
with a word or two of his hee-haw conversation: how it
was "a son of a gun of a cold night on deck, Mr.
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