most desperate the wheel of doom turned backward and we were saved. The
hurricane found us fretful with life by reason of the heat, it left us
thankful for being let to live at all; though the Wilderness appeared
little better than a drifting wreck. Our commissariat was gone, or
almost gone, we hadn't any masts or sails to speak of, and the cook
informed us that we had but a few gallons of fresh water left; yet,
strange to say, the gladiators remained to us. When the peril was over
it surprised me to remember that Van Blaricom had been comparatively cool
through it all; for I had still before me a certain scene at the volcano
of Kilauea. I was to be still more surprised.

We were by no means out of danger. MacGregor did not know where we were;
the fresh water was vanishing rapidly, and our patch of sail was hardly
enough to warrant a breeze taking any interest in it. We had been saved
from immediate destruction, but it certainly seemed like exchanging
Tophet for a slow fire. When the heat was greatest and the spiritual
gloom thickest the American threw out the sand-bags, as it were, and hope
mounted again.

"Say, MacGregor," he said, "run up the American flag. There's luck in
the old bandana."

This being done, he added: "Bring along the cigars; we'll have out U. S.
and Bob Lee in the saloon."

Our Coliseum was again open to the public at two shillings a head. That
had been the price from the beginning. The American was very business-
like in the matter, but this admission fee was our only contribution to
the expenses of that cruise. Sport could only allay, it could not banish
our sufferings. We became as haggard and woe-begone a lot as ever ate