Round we went with the tide, until we got well under the lee of the
point, and then suddenly the speed slackened, we ceased to make way,
and finally appeared to be in dead water. The storm had entirely passed,
leaving a clean-washed sky behind it; the headland intercepted the heavy
sea that had been occasioned by the squall, and the tide, which had
been running so fiercely up the river (for we were now in the mouth of a
river), was sluggish before it turned, so we floated quietly, and before
the moon went down managed to bail out the boat thoroughly and get her
a little ship-shape. Leo was sleeping profoundly, and on the whole I
thought it wise not to wake him. It was true he was sleeping in wet
clothes, but the night was now so warm that I thought (and so did Job)
that they were not likely to injure a man of his unusually vigorous
constitution. Besides, we had no dry ones at hand.
Presently the moon went down, and left us floating on the waters, now
only heaving like some troubled woman's breast, with leisure to reflect
upon all that we had gone through and all that we had escaped.
Pages:
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123