A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 72: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A QUEER RACE. 69 by keeping the sea down somewhat, probably prevented us from being pooped. When morning broke the rain was still falling, and the | wind blowing in strong gusts; the Diana was scudding before it, and we were still both at the wheel; and except for intervals of a few minutes, when one or other of us snatched a morsel of food or took a pull at the bottle of half-water grog which Tom had put under the binnacle, we remained at the wheel all that day and all the next night. What distance we made in this time we had no means of exactly computing; but when the wind began to fall off, Tom tried our rate of sailing with the patent log, and found it to be eight knots; but our average speed dur- ing the thirty-six hours the gale lasted must have been much more, and we probably ran not less than four hun- ~ dred miles. Where we were wecould form only the very yaguest idea, for our course had been most erratic, the wind shifting continually. When the storm abated, and there was promise of bet- ter weather, Bolsover suggested that I should turn in. ‘*Tam more used to this sort of thing than you are,” he said. ‘‘I can stand it awhile longer; but vou are / about used up, I think. Lie down for an hour or two; | will waken you up when I want you.” I required no second bidding. Iwas utterlysilent, and only half conscious. Without undressing, I threw myself on the bunk in the captain’s cabin, and almost before my head touched the pillow was fast asleep. When I awoke, as it seemed to me an hour or so later, the sun was shining brightly, and the boatswain lay asleep on the floor. ‘‘Halloo!” I thought. ‘*‘ Has old Tom deserted his post? Why didn’t he waken me?” But when I looked out I saw that the sea was perfectly calm—not a breath of air ruffled its glassy surface—and the Diana lay there, as still and motionless as ‘‘a painted ship upon a painted ocean.” | Clearly no need for a-man at the wheel, and Tom had done quite right to take his rest without interrupting mine. After a wash and a walk round the ship, I went to the galley, kindled the fire, made lobscouse and-pea soup, Eomicboo “S (Ee)