What they were I knew not, but they grew gradually fainter
and fainter, and after a time were lost. In a few hours the clouds
broke, and I saw beneath me that which made the chilled blood run colder
in my veins. I saw the sea, and nothing but the sea; in the main black,
but flecked with white heads of storm-tossed, angry waves.
Arowhena was sleeping quietly at the bottom of the car, and as I looked
at her sweet and saintly beauty, I groaned, and cursed myself for the
misery into which I had brought her; but there was nothing for it now.
I sat and waited for the worst, and presently I saw signs as though that
worst were soon to be at hand, for the balloon had begun to sink. On
first seeing the sea I had been impressed with the idea that we must have
been falling, but now there could be no mistake, we were sinking, and
that fast. I threw out a bag of ballast, and for a time we rose again,
but in the course of a few hours the sinking recommenced, and I threw out
another bag.
Then the battle commenced in earnest. It lasted all that afternoon and
through the night until the following evening. I had seen never a sail
nor a sign of a sail, though I had half blinded myself with straining my
eyes incessantly in every direction; we had parted with everything but
the clothes which we had upon our backs; food and water were gone, all
thrown out to the wheeling albatrosses, in order to save us a few hours
or even minutes from the sea.
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