deserved to be called one, consisted of six or eight of the
straightest branches we could find laid obliquely against the
steep wall of rock, with their lower ends within a foot of the
stream. Into the space thus covered over we managed to crawl,
and dispose our wearied bodies as best we could.

Shall I ever forget that horrid night! As for poor Toby, I could
scarcely get a word out of him. It would have been some
consolation to have heard his voice, but he lay shivering the
live-long night like a man afflicted with the palsy, with his
knees drawn up to his head, while his back was supported against
the dripping side of the rock. During this wretched night there
seemed nothing wanting to complete the perfect misery of our
condition. The rain descended in such torrents that our poor
shelter proved a mere mockery. In vain did I try to elude the
incessant streams that poured upon me; by protecting one part I
only exposed another, and the water was continually finding some
new opening through which to drench us.

I have had many a ducking in the course of my life, and in
general cared little about it; but the accumulated horrors of
that night, the deathlike coldness of the place, the appalling
darkness and the dismal sense of our forlorn condition, almost
unmanned me.

It will not be doubted that the next morning we were early
risers, and as soon as I could catch the faintest glimpse of
anything like daylight I shook my companion by the arm, and told
him it was sunrise. Poor Toby lifted up his head, and after a
moment's pause said, in a husky voice, 'Then, shipmate, my