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1It was very tiring and slow work, yet I did visibly gain ground; and as we drew near the Cape of the Woods, though I saw
2I must infallibly miss that point, I had still made some hundred yards of easting. I was, indeed, close in. I could see
3the cool green tree-tops swaying together in the breeze, and I felt sure I should make the next promontory without fail.
4It was high time, for I now began to be tortured with thirst. The glow of the sun from above, its thousandfold
5reflection from the waves, the sea-water that fell and dried upon me, caking my very lips with salt, combined to make my
6throat burn and my brain ache. The sight of the trees so near at hand had almost made me sick with longing, but the
7current had soon carried me past the point, and as the next reach of sea opened out, I beheld a sight that changed the
8nature of my thoughts. Right in front of me, not half a mile away, I beheld the HISPANIOLA under sail. I made sure, of
9course, that I should be taken; but I was so distressed for want of water that I scarce knew whether to be glad or sorry
10at the thought, and long before I had come to a conclusion, surprise had taken entire possession of my mind and I could
11do nothing but stare and wonder. The HISPANIOLA was under her main-sail and two jibs, and the beautiful white canvas
12shone in the sun like snow or silver. When I first sighted her, all her sails were drawing; she was lying a course about
13north-west, and I presumed the men on board were going round the island on their way back to the anchorage. Presently
14she began to fetch more and more to the westward, so that I thought they had sighted me and were going about in chase.
15At last, however, she fell right into the wind's eye, was taken dead aback, and stood there awhile helpless, with her
16sails shivering. "Clumsy fellows," said I; "they must still be drunk as owls." And I thought how Captain Smollett would
17have set them skipping. Meanwhile the schooner gradually fell off and filled again upon another tack, sailed swiftly for
18a minute or so, and brought up once more dead in the wind's eye. Again and again was this repeated. To and fro, up and
19down, north, south, east, and west, the HISPANIOLA sailed by swoops and dashes, and at each repetition ended as she had
20begun, with idly flapping canvas. It became plain to me that nobody was steering. And if so, where were the men? Either
21they were dead drunk or had deserted her, I thought, and perhaps if I could get on board I might return the vessel to
22her captain. The current was bearing coracle and schooner southward at an equal rate. As for the latter's sailing, it
23was so wild and intermittent, and she hung each time so long in irons, that she certainly gained nothing, if she did not
24even lose. If only I dared to sit up and paddle, I made sure that I could overhaul her. The scheme had an air of
25adventure that inspired me, and the thought of the water breaker beside the fore companion doubled my growing courage.
26Up I got, was welcomed almost instantly by another cloud of spray, but this time stuck to my purpose and set myself,
27with all my strength and caution, to paddle after the unsteered HISPANIOLA. Once I shipped a sea so heavy that I had to
28stop and bail, with my heart fluttering like a bird, but gradually I got into the way of the thing and guided my coracle
29among the waves, with only now and then a blow upon her bows and a dash of foam in my face. I was now gaining rapidly on
30the schooner; I could see the brass glisten on the tiller as it banged about, and still no soul appeared upon her decks.
31I could not choose but suppose she was deserted. If not, the men were lying drunk below, where I might batten them down,
32perhaps, and do what I chose with the ship. For some time she had been doing the worse thing possible for me--standing
33still. She headed nearly due south, yawing, of course, all the time. Each time she fell off, her sails partly filled,
34and these brought her in a moment right to the wind again. I have said this was the worst thing possible for me, for
35helpless as she looked in this situation, with the canvas cracking like cannon and the blocks trundling and banging on
36the deck, she still continued to run away from me, not only with the speed of the current, but by the whole amount of
37her leeway, which was naturally great. But now, at last, I had my chance. The breeze fell for some seconds, very low,
38and the current gradually turning her, the HISPANIOLA revolved slowly round her centre and at last presented me her
39stern, with the cabin window still gaping open and the lamp over the table still burning on into the day. The main-sail
40hung drooped like a banner. She was stock-still but for the current. For the last little while I had even lost, but now
41redoubling my efforts, I began once more to overhaul the chase. I was not a hundred yards from her when the wind came
42again in a clap; she filled on the port tack and was off again, stooping and skimming like a swallow. My first impulse
43was one of despair, but my second was towards joy. Round she came, till she was broadside on to me--round still till she
44had covered a half and then two thirds and then three quarters of the distance that separated us. I could see the waves
45boiling white under her forefoot. Immensely tall she looked to me from my low station in the coracle. And then, of a
46sudden, I began to comprehend. I had scarce time to think--scarce time to act and save myself. I was on the summit of
47one swell when the schooner came stooping over the next. The bowsprit was over my head. I sprang to my feet and leaped,
48stamping the coracle under water. With one hand I caught the jib-boom, while my foot was lodged between the stay and the
49brace; and as I still clung there panting, a dull blow told me that the schooner had charged down upon and struck the
50coracle and that I was left without retreat on the HISPANIOLA. XXV I Strike the Jolly Roger I had scarce gained a
51position on the bowsprit when the flying jib flapped and filled upon the other tack, with a report like a gun. The
52schooner trembled to her keel under the reverse, but next moment, the other sails still drawing, the jib flapped back
53again and hung idle. This had nearly tossed me off into the sea; and now I lost no time, crawled back along the
54bowsprit, and tumbled head foremost on the deck. I was on the lee side of the forecastle, and the mainsail, which was
55still drawing, concealed from me a certain portion of the after-deck. Not a soul was to be seen. The planks, which had
56not been swabbed since the mutiny, bore the print of many feet, and an empty bottle, broken by the neck, tumbled to and
57fro like a live thing in the scuppers. Suddenly the HISPANIOLA came right into the wind. The jibs behind me cracked
58aloud, the rudder slammed to, the whole ship gave a sickening heave and shudder, and at the same moment the main-boom
59swung inboard, the sheet groaning in the blocks, and showed me the lee after-deck. There were the two watchmen, sure
60enough: red-cap on his back, as stiff as a handspike, with his arms stretched out like those of a crucifix and his teeth
61showing through his open lips; Israel Hands propped against the bulwarks, his chin on his chest, his hands lying open
62before him on the deck, his face as white, under its tan, as a tallow candle. For a while the ship kept bucking and
63sidling like a vicious horse, the sails filling, now on one tack, now on another, and the boom swinging to and fro till
64the mast groaned aloud under the strain. Now and again too there would come a cloud of light sprays over the bulwark and
65a heavy blow of the ship's bows against the swell; so much heavier weather was made of it by this great rigged ship than
66by my home-made, lop-sided coracle, now gone to the bottom of the sea.
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