On the third day a change came over us.  We relinquished bathing, the exertion taxing us too much.  Sullenly we laid ourselves down; turned our backs to each other; and were impatient of the slightest casual touch of our persons.  What sort of expression my own countenance wore, I know not; but I hated to look at Jarl’s.  When I did it was a glare, not a glance.  I became more taciturn than he.  I can not tell what it was that came over me, but I wished I was alone.  I felt that so long as the calm lasted, we were without help; that neither could assist the other; and above all, that for one, the water would hold out longer than for two.  I felt no remorse, not the slightest, for these thoughts.  It was instinct.  Like a desperado giving up the ghost, I desired to gasp by myself.

From being cast away with a brother, good God deliver me!

The four days passed.  And on the morning of the fifth, thanks be to Heaven, there came a breeze.  Dancingly, mincingly it came, just rippling the sea, until it struck our sails, previously set at the very first token of its advance.  At length it slightly freshened; and our poor Chamois seemed raised from the dead.

Beyond expression delightful!  Once more we heard the low humming of the sea under our bow, as our boat, like a bird, went singing on its way.

How changed the scene!  Overhead, a sweet blue haze, distilling sunlight in drops.  And flung abroad over the visible creation was the sun-spangled, azure, rustling robe of the ocean, ermined with wave crests; all else, infinitely blue.  Such a cadence of musical sounds!  Waves chasing each other, and sporting and frothing in frolicsome foam:  painted fish rippling past; and anon the noise of wings as sea-fowls flew by.

Oh, Ocean, when thou choosest to smile, more beautiful thou art than flowery mead or plain!

CHAPTER XVII In High Spirits, They Push On For The Terra Incognita

There were now fourteen notches on the loom of the Skyeman’s oar:—­So many days since we had pushed from the fore-chains of the Arcturion.  But as yet, no floating bough, no tern, noddy, nor reef-bird, to denote our proximity to land.  In that long calm, whither might not the currents have swept us?

Where we were precisely, we knew not; but according to our reckoning, the loose estimation of the knots run every hour, we must have sailed due west but little more than one hundred and fifty leagues; for the most part having encountered but light winds, and frequent intermitting calms, besides that prolonged one described.  But spite of past calms and currents, land there must be to the westward.  Sun, compass, stout hearts, and steady breezes, pointed our prow thereto.  So courage! my Viking, and never say drown!

At this time, our hearts were much lightened by discovering that our water was improving in taste.  It seemed to have been undergoing anew that sort of fermentation, or working, occasionally incident to ship water shortly after being taken on board.  Sometimes, for a period, it is more or less offensive to taste and smell; again, however, becoming comparatively limpid.